


Turning the Clock Back

by Viet_joker



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bonding, De-Aged, De-Aged Stiles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid!Stiles, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pack Bonding, Spells & Enchantments, Tickling, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2017-12-07 21:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viet_joker/pseuds/Viet_joker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to a witch's spell, Stiles has to adjust to being a child again under the care of the entire pack, who might lose their minds when they try to handle a tiny, rambunctious Stiles running around everywhere. Derek has a lot to handle, but promises that he will do his best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Work is unbeta'd, errors are all mine. Sorry!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellllooooo everyone! I really craved a Kid!Stiles fic, but there are seriously very few out there and asdfghjkl i needed to fix that.

 

A witch.

Beacon Hills has had a witch and it’s rather annoying, really. Yes, she was to be considered dangerous, but Deaton knew how much magic she had, and she would be considered a novice. A newbie. He explained the different kinds of rankings that witches had. Those that had long years of experience and knowledge would be considered a very powerful one, who he warned everyone to never tick off. Those that had fewer years were considered to be novice, primarily up to about ten years.

So, with that information set in mind, Stiles was weary of the witch, novice or not, if she had the ability to conjure up spells, then she was dangerous. The pack on the other hand, didn't pay much attention to the untold heed of the vet’s words. They thought that just because they were werewolves, they were powerful and could take her down easily. " _we outnumber her, she's a novice, its a win for us."_  They seriously underestimated her.

Right now they were in the depths of the woods facing off the witch. Well, the werewolves were, Stiles lingered behind them with Allison and Lydia. The witch didn't look like she was going to leave anytime soon. She looked entirely too amused, and Stiles assumed she was either being too cocky, or she must have been sniffing something a little too much. The three of them observed as the weres began to attack the witch, only to discover that they underestimated her, though that was too late because right now she seems livid due to the insult Derek threw at her. They dodged attacks she threw at them. Thankfully the trees took most of her hits.

“It’s such a sad thing to see children doing grown up stuff. Killing, fighting…where has their innocence gone to?” she said.

“We’re not kids!” Scott shouted.

“Oh, but you are!” she chuckled. “You are, you are, oh yes you are little one.”

Isaac and Erica came from behind and tried to surprise her, but she zipped up into the air and onto a tree branch.

“Surprise from behind honey? Now that’s the spirit!” she clapped.

“What do you want!” Scott asked her.

“I’m merely here to gather ingre—why must I tell you?” she crossed her arms. “Oh fine, since you asked. I’m just gathering a few young souls for my spell.” She shrugged. “Children are best what the spell calls for. Though, I can take other measures.” She smirked and glanced around. She spotted three kids hiding.

“Oh, what do we have here?” she said. She quickly conjured a spell and shot it at the tree near them. Vines sprouted out and came alive.

“Crap” Allison grumbled as she got up fast. "Go, go, go." she said to Stiles and Lydia.

“Oh shit—” Stiles hissed as he abruptly got up and scampered away. Though, the vines acted quicker and wrapped all of them around their waists a few times. Allison had one arm pinned down, Lydia had both, and Stiles, luckily had both of his arms free.

“Oh, why were you hiding away little ones?” she hopped from one branch to another and landed on one of her vines that lead her to the front of them.

“This better not ruin my clothes.” Lydia complained.

The witch smiled when she heard several growls below her. Ah, they were getting angry.

“Let them go!” Derek demanded.

“Man, you guys are no fun at all.” She grumbled.

“Well, on account of someone dangerous coming on our—excuse me—his turf,” Stiles pointed at Derek. “—and doing their grocery shopping and soul sucking children, and trespassing private property.” Stiles let out. “—and you’re blasting holes into his trees—” he flailed “—I would be pretty pissed and grumpy.” he shrugged.

The witch stared at him when Stiles talked and flailed around. She smiled, which really gave Stiles goose bumps. “Well, I’m glad someone here still has their youth.” She laughed. “Rambunctious aren’t you?” she went over to Stiles. “Oooh, and you’re eyes are so full of innocence!” she peered at him closer, bringing her hands up and cupped his face. Stiles seriously wanted to slap her hands away, but he’s not stupid.

The Witch, with  _power at her will_ , she can cause anything to happen that Stiles definitely would not like at all. He really didn't want to piss her off anymore, even though she seemed real amused at everything. Although happy witches were just as bad as angry ones.

Stiles tried to duck his head away from her, but she held a tight grip. Her sharp nails dug into his cheeks.  Stiles grabbed her wrist and tried to pry them away from him.

“Seriously…personal…space…issues.” He struggled. “Fuck do you work out?”

“Why are they always surprised…?” she rolled her eyes.

“Why are you so grouchy?”

“Why—I am not grouchy.”

“Yes you are, seriously. You got some serious sassyness in there too.”

“I’m fine with being a bit sassy, but i don't think i'm grouchy like my old coot.”

“Don’t you have a—I don’t know, a cat? An owl or something to talk to? Must be lonely for ya.” Stiles' hands trembled as he struggled with the witch.

“I am not—well; yes I am a bit lonely. People like you though relieve me of that loneliness.” She shrugged, but stopped. An idea came in mind. She grinned and gave Stiles a wicked smile. “Ahh…ah! Why don’t I take you with me and keep me company?” she smiled. “You’ve got a bit of spark in ya.” She rubbed his eyes and dragged her thumbs through his eyebrows. She laughed. "Your eyes are full of th—ARRGH!” she shouted as a claw slashed across her back. One of her nails had cut Stiles on the side of his face, drawing a small stream of blood that trickled down his cheek.

The witch snapped around, facing the brood in leather, face extremely sour. He grinned at her. She hadn't notice his presence at all. The witch dropped to the ground.

“Man, you’re creeping up on everyone pays off.” Stiles complimented him. Derek rolled his eyes.

"I don't do it for the fun of it, Stiles." Derek said.

"Oh yes you do, admit you like scaring the hell outta me." Stiles heard the werewolf chuckle. That asshole.

“This is nice in all but I would love to get down from here before she get's up again.” Lydia complained. “JACKSON.” She yelled. She saw Jackson was about to go over to her until the witch abruptly got up and flew back several feet before any of the werewolves got to her.

“Well now, that wasn’t very nice.” She gritted out as the blood was oozed out of her. “Maybe I should’ve learnt some healing spells like she said….huh.” she huffed out. “Whelp, this isn’t very good for me.” she straightened her back. She flew up in the air and started to conjure up another spell. She almost finished, but an arrow shot her down right through the chest. The pack turned to see Allison crouched on the ground on one knee, in position to strike. Scott, sadly, was whining at his bloodied nails.

“Aw, I can’t leave without a parting gift now can I?” she cackled as she spat out blood and finishes the spell and aims it towards Derek. He had his back to her as he tried to claw his way through the vine.

“Fuck—Derek!” Stiles shouted. Derek turns around, but doesn’t budge.

And Stiles managed to move the man out of harms way by kicking him in the balls,  ** _Hard_**. He heard Derek grunt in pain as he curled and stumbled off the vine and toward the ground.

Stiles eyes widened as he stared into the massive orb of energy coming toward him.

Fuck.

The pack stared in disbelief, seeing Stiles hit by the large orb and his whole body consumed by it. Something odd happened though. As soon as his consumed his entire body, it literally popped, small orbs of energy flared out into smaller ones and dissipated.

Stiles seemed to be alright. His face was pinched, as if waiting for something to happen. He cautionly opened one eye and then the other. He glanced around confusingly and sagged in relief.

“Thank god it didn’t work.” he groaned. He flailed his limbs around. “Seriously, someone get me down now please?”

After Stiles and Lydia were taken down, Stiles got a harsh slap behind his head from Derek.

“Ow—really?!”

“Stiles, why the _hell_ did you do that?” Derek growled at him. "That was  _stupid!"_  

“Well i wasn't about to let you get god knows what from that spell right in front of me!”

“You’re lucky the spell didn’t work.” he gritted his teeth. “Don’t _ever_ do that again.” he flashed his red eyes at him.

“Yea, yea keep your pants on, geez.” Stiles looked over to the witch, who was dead at last. “What are we gonna do with her?”

“Deaton is on his way with Ms. Morrell to handle her, something about taking precaution with witch corpses.” Scott told Stiles. “You okay?”

“Yea, just need to get back and clean up. Feel like everything is all over my skin.” He shivered. “Need to scrub clean.”

Scott chuckled.

 

* * *

 

“I got dibs on shower!” Stiles ran toward the bathroom inside the hale house.

“Just hurry up before everyone else falls asleep on the floor.” Derek shouted at him.

“That only makes me want to take even longer!” Stiles’ voice died down as he went up the stairs and down the hallways and toward the bathroom. He closed the bathroom door and set his clothes off on the counter of the sink. He chucked his clothes off and stepped inside the tub.

It was about midway into his lovely, warm, steamy shower that something seemed odd. His skin still felt grimy, no matter how many times he scrubbed it. He didn't want to stop when it was starting to get irritated. After a while though, it started getting rather itchy. He scratched and left red claw marks everywhere, though it didn't really help him at all.

“God dammit.” He muttered. He reached over and turned the hot water on a bit more, causing more steam to form.

After his scratching horror, he shut the water off and opened the curtain and grabbed a towel hanging on the rack. He dried himself off and started with his hair until a horrible head rush happened. Stiles closed his eyes and felt nauseous. He took a step and slipped by accident. thankfully the towel cushioned his head. Stiles breathed slowly as the nausea passed. He got up and tried to step out of the shower. Tried to. He realized he couldn't step over the tub at all because his limbs were suddenly _smaller_.

Like, holy fuck he was ten times scrawnier than before. There was oddly too much steam in the bathroom so he couldn't see anything. It was most likely the witch had shrunk him with that last spell, or was it a side effect of a failed one she attempted? Either way, this was still bad. He climbed out of the tub and landed on his ass. It hurt more than before.

"Oh _fuck_ that hurts." he whined. He got up and stumbled on his clothes he left on the floor. He glanced up, but noticed that the counter top sink was too high and way out of his reach.

He grumbles and picks up his oversized red hoodie, and put it on.

The whole thing consumed him. He’s practically swimming in the thing. It didn't cling and hold on his shoulders and practically half of his whole entire body fits in the hoodie part.

This was what happened when you buy baggier clothes.  He looked down at his shirt that was lying next to his pants. It was one of his favorite shirts that had the word ‘JAWESOME’ on it. That’ll do.

He worked his way out from the hoodie and into the shirt. It’s still baggier, but way better than the large hoodie. The neckline was about two inches from falling off his shoulders, the short sleeves stopping at his elbows and the end of the shirt stops half way down his legs. He’s pretty sure with his damp, wild hair he looked entirely ridiculous.

“Seriously glad the stupid witch died.” He complained and noticed his voice was somewhat higher. He walked over to the door and he has to stand on the tip of his toes to reach the door knob and turn it. He cursed as he tried reaching for them.

As he opened the door, he felt the rush of cold air swooping inside and shivered. Ah, werewolves. Higher body heat. They must have put it on max, no wonder there was so much steam in here.

He headed down the hallway, which seemed a bit creepier in the dark than usual. His heart started to beat a bit faster as he rushed down the hallway. Stiles stopped at the top of the stairs and looks down and holy _crap_ where the stairs always that high up? And Derek didn't install any rails lately because they always break when the werewolves fought. He clung  to the side wall and slowly descended down. He heard some of the pack wrestling downstairs, occupying time until they each took a turn in the shower. He didn’t see Derek anywhere, so he must’ve been in the kitchen area. That was farthest away from the living room. The pack were probably too focused on the match for them to take notice of Stiles.

Until Stiles slipped half way down and rolled down the stairs. He didn't stop rolling until he hit the wall with a loud _thump_  from his forehead. Stiles whimpered at the pain coming from his forehead. He covered it up with both of his hands, as if hoping that would make the pain go away.

The pack stopped and snapped their head at the source of the sound they didn't expect.

“What the hell was that?!” Jackson growled.

“I didn’t even sense anything.” Boyd said, a bit angry because something slipped past him.

Erica went forward carefully, claws protracting, teeth poking out. “Come out, come out where ever you are~” she hummed.

The pack was on standby, though confused because they didn't sense anything dangerous. They do sense pain now that they realized it. Everyone, saw Erica turn a bit to her right with her smirk, but then seeing it dropped, her eyes wide.

“Oh my god…” she held up a hand to her mouth.  Boyd came up to her and stopped as he saw what made her look so shocked.

“Derek,  we got a problem,” Boyd said . It didn't take him long for him to emerge from down the other hallway.

“What?” he growled and stopped, sensing something. He saw Erica and Boyd blocking something with shocked expressions and the pack standing by confusingly.

“I think the witch’s last spell worked,” Boyd said.

“What?” he asked. He stoped and remembered the last spell hit Stiles. “What happened to Stiles?” he growled, getting frustrated. He sniffed and smelled pain coming from Stiles.

He saw Erica bend over and life a small bundle in what he smell’s is Stiles’ shirt he wore earlier today. When the small bundle was in her arms, the pack gasped.

Derek then saw it. He saw what everyone is so shocked about. He saw a small little kid with wild hair, who at the moment was covering a forming bruise on his forehead.

He noticed that there wasn't a difference in the smell at all. No mixed scents. The boy’s skin had moles accordingly to Stiles’ moles. Large, doe eyes that has conflicting tears that want to fall or pull back. His small cupid bow mouth. Yup, that was Stiles. No doubt about it. He’s going to kill that wit—oh wait he did.

“Stiles, it’s okay, we’re going to fix this.” Scott cut the awkward silence. “Wait, does he know who we are?” the pack stiffened. “The spell didn’t reverse his brain too didn’t it?” because the one thing Scott doesn’t want to see is a toddler Stiles running around, hyper as hell and will undoubtedly ask for his _mom_.

“Yes, you asshole I know who you guys are!” Stiles shouted, or rather squeaked. “I just can’t focus with the pounding headache right now.” He threw a glare at him, but it really didn’t have any scary effect to it. “Erica make it stop…” he whimpered again, and his face pouted and she can't say no to that face.

“Okay, okay Batman, just, don’t make that face anymore,” She said. She placed a finger and a thumb gently on his forehead. Thin streaks of black swam up her hand, but they were rather short. The pain emitting from Stiles disappeared and his face seemed content.

“You good?” Derek asked him. Stiles looked over and nodded. “Good, now what the _hell_ happened Stiles?!”

“I don’t know!” Stiles flailed in Erica’s arms. “The spell the stupid witch shot me probably worked, or a side effect of an unsuccessful one, i don't know!”

“Why didn’t you notice anything sooner?” Scott asked.

“I felt fine up until halfway through the shower I started getting insanely itchy. There was a lot of steam and I didn’t notice anything until i got real nauseous and had a head rush. Then i slipped and when i tried to get up, i could no longer reach over it.” He swung his legs in frustration, arms flying everywhere.

“Uh, Erica I think is best if you put him down before he smacks you in the face.” Allison said. Erica thought about it for a moment and walked over to the couch and put him down.

“Scott, call Deaton and get him over here. He should still be near here.” Derek told him. He nodded and called him.

“How old are you?” Isaac asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I was scrawny and short when I was a kid.” He studied his body. “Four...five?” he shrugged. Stiles shifted on the couch standing and leaning from one leg to the other. He shifted again, liking the movement.

“Don’t even think about jumping on my couch.” Derek growled.

Stiles looked at him with his huge, amber eyes and started bouncing up and down slowly.

_Oh my god._ Stiles thought. _This is actually kind of fun._ _And the look on Derek’s face too_.

Stiles giggled as he hopped from one cushion to another.

“Stiles…” Allison said warily.

“Yesss?” he smiled as he hopped and jumped. He saw Derek clenching his fists, but doesn’t move because really, he’s kid. Hitting a kid is child abuse.

“You know what happened to the monkeys when they keep jumping on the bed?” she said, earning confusing stares.

“Of course, they fell and br—” Stiles stopped and blinked for a moment. He fell down on his butt and glued himself there.

He didn't like pain in this body. It hurts ten times more than it normally did.

He’s not risking out the pain levels this body can take.

“Good.” She smiled.

“Deaton is on his way. He just got done with ditching the de—” he stopped and looked at Stiles.

“Dude you can say dead body. I don’t have a mind of a five year old.”

Scott looks mortally wounded.

“What?”

“You’re a toddler, don’t just say that!”

“Say what?

“Dead body—” he slapped a hand over his mouth.

“You still fall for that trick.” Stiles grinned and snickered.

“Scott has a point Stiles.” Lydia spoke up. “When we go out in public, you have at least act your age, or simmer down on the foul language and you English.”

Boyd nodded. “She has a point.”

“Wait—I can’t go out like this! I grew up here, the people will notice who I am!” Stiles yelled.

“You can’t go around wearing improper clothes all the time Stiles.” Lydia glared at him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be buying your clothes.” She smiled. “You’re not going to look the same as you did before.”

“I am not your guinea pig,” he mumbled.

There was a knock on the door. Derek sighed, hoping Deaton can fix all of this shit. Isaac opened the door and let him and Ms. Morrell in. She spotted him as Deaton greeted Scott and the others and swore under her breath.

“Deaton, this is a huge problem,” she said.

Deaton turned and saw Stiles sitting on the couch.

“Oh no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 6/19/14: Going into past tense, i think i got them all here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 6/20/14: I think i got them all past tense here. Fixed some information, especially about the ADHD medicine dosage. Thank you for that, punctuallyLate! :)

“Apparently the spell won’t activate until the object is showered in a particular substance,” Deaton said as he did a quick examination on Stiles. Stiles was currently sitting on the edge of the couch, patiently waiting on him to finish.

“What substance?” Derek asked him. He stood off to the side as the pack sat around comfortably, staring at Stiles.

“Phosphate,” Ms. Morrell said. “And where are you to most likely find phosphate in?” she asked the pack.

“Water.” Lydia said casually.

“So the shower I took—” Stiles started off.

“—was what activated the spell.” Deaton finished. “I honestly think it was better for it to happen now rather than later and find yourself in a difficult position.” He sighed. “You seem alright, health is good and I’d like to keep it that way.” He got up and faced the pack.

“It’s almost like you’re familiar with this spell,” Isaac said, studying the vet.

Deaton reluctantly nodded. “I came across this spell a few times in my life.”

“Please tell us one of you knows how to…” Scott flailed his hands a bit “…fast forward him?”

“I wish we knew too,” Deaton said. “Unfortunately, it was never that easy.”

“When we told you to not underestimate her, we meant it,” Ms. Morrell said. “Witches are crafty and take you down without a second thought when you’re defenseless.”

Derek clenched his fists. It was his fault.

“Okay, it was our fault, how do we put him back to normal again?” Erica asked.

“The witch has been staying in Beacon Hills for quite some time. She was here a bit longer before she slipped and was found out,” Deaton said.  “We’ll need to find out where she was staying at and get her spell book. There should be a spell to reverse what she had done.”

“It wouldn’t be too hard to track her down. One of you can scent her out, but in the meantime…” she stared off “…I think it’s time for Stiles’ bed time.” She smiled. The pack looked over to Stiles, who curled up to himself and tucked his knees into his shirt, snoring away (which came out in a high tone) adorably.

“He can’t go home,” Scott said.

“Obviously McCall,” Jackson muttered.

“He’ll just have to stay with you guys until we fix him,” Ms. Morrell said. “I assume it’s no problem to handle, since Stiles still maintains his current mind and not of a toddler.”

“A hyperactive, sneaky little child with ADHD,” Scott mumbled. 

“Wait, what about his meds?” Allison asked. “He needs to take them doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, still does too. I'm gonna have to sneak in his room and get them,” Scott answered her.

“We’ll get things started tomorrow. A night’s rest would do everyone some good,” Deaton said as got up. "I'll try to find something about this," he said before he left with his sister.

Scott closed the door behind them and turned around and sighed. He felt so incredibly guilty. If only he hadn’t pissed the lady off along with Derek and the others, maybe she wouldn’t have cast that spell.

“Where is he going to sleep tonight?” Isaac asked. “We can’t let his dad see him like this.”

“His dad already knows about us, I don’t see why not,” Lydia stated as she shrugged. She typed away on her phone again.

“We’ll avoid letting his dad see him like this until we figure this out,” Derek said.

“And by that he means until he’s back to being normal again,” Boyd said.

“He can’t be at my house, Sheriff visits a lot and Mom will feel guilty for lying to the sheriff and end up telling the truth,” Scott said.

“He can stay here,” Derek offered, which surprised them. “I had little cousins I used to take care of often. Babysitting Stiles won’t be too hard.” He looked over to Lydia, who was on her phone, no doubt buying clothes for Stiles already. He rolled his eyes. “Don’t give him anything too fancy; we don’t know how long this spell will last. Get casual clothes since he’s going to get them dirty around the woods.”

“I can get him some kid safe food to eat, since he’s itty bitty,” Erica said as she smiled. Derek nodded in approval.  

“Clothes should arrive tomorrow afternoon,” Lydia said as she snapped her phone closed.

“How’d you get them so fast?” Allison asked with envy.

“I told them I would leave a horrible review if I didn’t get them here asap.” She smiled. “Now, I think it’s been a long day, Jackson and I will be back tomorrow with clothes.” She flipped her hair and turned around, leaving with Jackson, who had been oddly quiet.

“I’m bunking here tonight. We can go shopping tomorrow morning,” Erica said as she yawned. “I’m tired.”

“I can’t go home with tattered clothes again or else Mom will freak again.” Boyd said.  Derek nodded.

“You’re always welcome here.” They smile.

“Where’s mini Batman going to stay?” Erica wondered. “He can sleep with me, but Boyd will squish him.”

“That was once.”

“You still squash him.”

“I didn’t mean to, honestly.”

“He was my pet ferret! You totally did it on purpose,” she grumbled.

Boyd shrugged. “He chewed through my leather jacket.”

“He should be fine in one of the other bedrooms,” Derek said as he made his way over to Stiles. He gently picked him up into his arms and headed toward the stairs. They all filed in behind him and went off into their own bedrooms.

Derek carefully opened the door to one of the extra bedrooms and walked in. He put Stiles underneath the covered and tucked him in. He turned and walked toward the door, pausing for a moment. He took a look at Stiles before shutting the door.

Derek flopped down on his bed, processing through all the sudden development. He had enough trouble trying to take care of his pack along with Stiles’ help, but now he has to take care of a child, _Stiles._ It had been forever since he took care of his little cousins, he wasn't so entirely positive he can look out for him. Hopefully, though, the pack can get their heads together and grow up.

Erica was showing it already, he was sure that she wasn't going to go anywhere near Stiles as a kid or even as much as put in effort for him. He was obviously wrong, since she seemed keened on buying some safe food for him. Everything else in the house would be supplied by the delivery person, who gets extra tips for going _all_ the way here, the microwave, or junk food. Stiles would come over from time to time and happily prepare some food for the pack.

Now that he thought about it, he did most of the things to help the pack. Now it was their turn to return the favor.

Derek let out a harsh sigh and fell asleep.

 

Stiles woke up alone, in a huge bed, in the dark, _a_ _lone._ Do people not realize how scary that is? Apparently not. It was too quiet. He hated the silence. It was never welcome to him. He remembered when he was this age that he would occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, terrified of the dark. He would sprint to his parent’s room and crawl in their bed and sleep between them. He knew that he can’t fall asleep unless someone helped lull him back to slumber or he snuck into a bed with someone in it and fall asleep with them. His usual tactic was to get on his laptop until he just passed out in front of it or have an all nighter like he did at times, but he can't really do that now. He didn't have any of his stuff near him and he wasn't about to go downstairs.

He crawled out of bed and tip toed toward the door and opened it. It opened with a creak and he headed down the hall. He stopped in front of a door, Boyd and Erica’s room and he knew to not disturb him.

He continued across the hall in front of Derek’s room and pondered if he could sleep with him.

Maybe not, Derek would probably maim him for sneaking in there.

He went over in front of Isaac’s room. He would do and Isaac is usually a quiet and still sleeper. Stiles would see him curl into a ball at times. He reached up and twisted the door knob and pushed the door slightly ajar. He slid in and closed the door, tip-toeing his way to the bed and he actually has to climb up there from the blanket. He pulled himself up and crawled under the blanket, seeing Isaac’s sleeping figure. He was half curled in, but there was enough of the small space created by that for Stiles to climb inside.

Stiles crawled over Isaac’s curled up legs, over his knees and dove into the small little pit, curling himself into Isaac. It was so incredibly warm. Stiles squeezed his head between Isaac’s arms and managed to finally fall asleep. He didn't notice Isaac smiling warmly at him. Isaac smiled and tucked into Stiles a bit and fell asleep to the tiny snore Stiles let out.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek feels like there's going to be a lot more whining in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 6/20/14: added in once small scene and hopefully fixed all the tenses to past.

Derek woke up to something bouncing up and down on his chest. He heard someone call his name as the bouncing continued. He growled but it didn't seem to stop it.

“I’m hungry!” the voice said.

Derek ignored it and tried to fall back asleep.

“Deeeeerrrreeekk!” the voice whined.

“Make some yourself,” He murmured.

“I would if I were able to _reach_ up there. Besides, Isaac says you guys are outta stuff.” Derek felt the tiny limbs swing back and forth. “C’mon, c’mon, wake up, wake up, wake up!”

Derek huffed and used one of his hands to slightly push at the thing. He snorted as he felt it tumble off. He then felt it crawl on top of him again.

“Wake up!” the voice shouted right in his ear. Derek scowled as he opened his eyes and saw Stiles—correction, tiny Stiles—perched on his chest, legs on both side of his chest, his tiny hands laying in the middle of his chest, a huge smile on his face and his eyes were wide awake.

“Stiles?” He blinked.

“Man, you’re a heavy sleeper. You didn’t even notice me come in here at all. Anyways, you have no food and I’m hungry.” Stiles smiled. “C’mon, let’s go eat somewhere, you said so yesterday—”

“—I thought you were asleep.” Derek raised an eyebrow.

“…I was…just dozing in and out. Not the point, you said so now let’s go.” He started to bounce up and down.

Derek huffed as he sat up, the corners of his mouth quirk up as he saw Stiles tumble backwards. Derek caught him with a hand behind Stiles so he wouldn’t hurt himself. Derek noticed how incredibly fragile and small Stiles was now. He frowned, thinking how Stiles usually injured himself normally, and how the others would playfully rough him up a bit. They’re going to need to be a bit careful now.

“That was not cool!” Stiles grumbled.

“You can’t go out.”

“What, why not?” Stiles whined.

“You don’t have any decent clothes to wear. No shirt that fits, no pants, no underwear, no shoes.” Derek listed off.

“Is my shirt not enough? That’s no fair!” Derek shrugged.

“Erica said she’ll be going to the store to grab some things,” he said. He looked over to the clock. It was only nine. “Why are you up so early?”

“I had to pee.”  Stiles shrugged. “Don’t you have _anything_?”

Derek just sighed. “C’mon, let’s look.” Stiles whooped as he crawled off of Derek and sprinted out of the room. He got off the bed and walks over to his drawer, pulling out a random shirt and putting it on. He walked out the door and saw Stiles waiting for him by the stairs. He walked and stopped beside him and noticed the tiny fist grabbing the leg of his sweats. Derek didn't bother to say anything and just went downstairs, though a bit slower than usual. Once he reached the bottom, Stiles immediately let go and dashed toward the kitchen. 

When he came in, he saw Stiles already in the process of pushing a chair from the table against the counter, attempting to climb up onto the counter. Derek rolled his eyes as he yanked Stiles up and grabbed the chair, pushing it back to the table. Stiles flailed.

“Hey!”

“Something tells me you do that a lot when you were this age.”

“Only when someone is being so incredibly slow. Now time for food,” he whined.

Derek put Stiles down and went through the pantry. He saw a half-eaten bag of chips and a box of granola bars with about three left. There was nothing else in the pantry. He grabbed both, shut it, turned to Stiles and held them up.

“Take your pick,” he said. Stiles just stared at him with those god forsaken huge eyes again.  He saw Stiles point to the granola bar.

“Chips are unhealthy in the morning,” Stiles said. Derek merely nodded as he gives one to Stiles. He put the food on the table in case Stiles got hungry again, like he always did.

He heard the wrapper opening and then tiny growls. He glanced at Stiles and saw him trying so incredibly hard to bite into the granola bar. Oops, they were the hard kind.

He will never say aloud that what he saw was just so cute. Stiles kept growling slightly as he tried to work his way through the first bite of the bar. His face scrunched up together and his cheeks were flushed. Derek was trying to hold in his laughter, but he assumed his expression gave it away when Stiles looked up at him.

“It’s not funny!” Derek laughed at that point.

“Yes it is.”

“It’s too hard!”

“Your teeth are too weak to bite into it.”  he paused to breathe.  “We have nothing else until you have clothes.”

“What am I supposed to do till noon?” he slumped his shoulders.

Derek shrugged his shoulder and stopped. He sighed as he finally heard Erica up.

“I’m so hungry right now, I’ll whine until I get food.”

“Erica’s up now, calm down.” He huffed.

“Errrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiicccaaaaaaa,” Stiles cried out. “I’m huuuuuuuuuuuuungry and we have no food!” Stiles threw his head backwards.

“Quit being so dramatic,” Derek complained.

A few moments later Erica. Boyd and Isaac (he wonders why they all chose to come out at the same time) came down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Morning,” Boyd said.

“Mornin’” Isaac slurred.

“Mornin’ Derek. Hello Mini Batman.” Erica greeted Stiles. She stopped her footsteps as she saw the hard granola bar in Stiles’ hand. “You do know he can’t eat that right? Little Kids can break their teeth on those things if they try too hard.” She threw him a look.

Derek….actually didn’t know that. His little cousins had no problem in eating through them; then again they were young werewolves.

“Why do you guys have no food? Seriously I’m gonna starve.”

“We usually have no time to restock when we’re dealing with problems.” Boyd simply answered. “Those times are usually filled with take out and pizza delivery.” He heard Stiles groan out.

Erica walked over to Stiles and picked him up unexpectedly. She put him down on a chair and walked over to the fridge and grabbed a gallon of milk out. She grabbed a small bowl and a spoon and went over to where Stiles sat confusingly, and set the items down.  She plucked the granola bars out and started to crush them with her bare hands and let it fall into the bowl. She poured the milk into the bowl and gave the spoon to Stiles, who took it slowly. Stiles look at the spoon and the bowl in front of him.

“Cereal?” Isaac said.

“Oh!” Stiles exclaimed as he starts eating. “Thanks Erica.”

“Yup.” Erica says. “I’m going to the store now, be back later,” she said as she walked out of the kitchen.

Isaac, Boyd and Derek look at each other for a moment and then at Stiles, who was swinging his feet and eating at his granola cereal.

Boyd simply shrugged as he follows after Erica. “We’re taking your jeep by the way Stiles.” He heard the boy say okay.

“Great, now I’m hungry,” Isaac muttered. He crossed the kitchen and grabs a granola bar from the box.

Stiles finished his cereal, now content with his full stomach. He pushed the bowl forward.

“Derek?” he asked.

“What.”

“I’m bored.” He started to whine… _again._

Derek felt like there's going to be a lot more whining in the future.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 6/20/14: revised. Hope i got them.

“How long will it take for Erica to be back? Seriously, I’m so bored and I’m hungry again.” Stiles complained as he followed Derek around the house. The man was doing his laundry, and Stiles being so entirely bored just followed Derek like a little duckling.

“She’s been gone for twenty minutes, be patient.” Derek told him.

“That’s forever! What’s she buying? Seriously how fast does Boyd drive and which store are they stopping by?”

“I don’t know, depends, I don’t know.” Derek simply answered Stiles. He sighed as he took all the clothes left in the dryer and dropped them in the basket. He then shoved all the wet laundry into the dryer and started putting the left over clothes and sheets in the washer.

“Can we go for a walk?” Stiles asked as he sat in the laundry basket that was full of warm clothes and sheets. Stiles snuggled up, burrowing a small nest and enjoyed the warmth it emitted.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“No clothes. I’m already known as a 'murderer', I don’t want to be known as a pedophile too, Stiles.”

“It’s in the middle of the woods! And _hello_ you got wolf powers! You can tell when someone is coming can’t you? Be enough time to run back to the house and I can hide.”

“You have no shoes. There are thorns out there and I’m not letting you walk around in bare feet.”

“Oh my god, I’m so bored! C'mon let’s do something!” Stiles suggested.

“Like what,” Derek asked as he poured the detergent and the fabric softener in the washer. He shut the lid and turned a few nobs and left it to run on its own. “and something that doesn’t involve in going outside.”

“Aaarrrghhh, you’re no fun.” Stiles sighed. “How about hide and seek?”

Derek looked at him. “Really?”

“Hey! Don’t judge! I’m smaller than I was before so I can hide in a few more places I can fit in now. It'll be awesome!”

“Stiles, I can still hear your heart.” Derek saw Stiles pout. Aw fuck, not that face.

“I’M BOOOOOOORRRRREEEE _EEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD_.” He whined out loud.

“Stiles, shut up! What do you usually do when you’re bored?” Derek asked him quickly.

“Games. You don’t have a system hereeeeeeeee.”

“Other than games?” Derek asked.

“Movies on my laptop, but that’s at home.”

Jesus Christ.  Derek plucked the laundry basked Stiles sat in and carried him through the hall and into the living room. He dumped him on the couch and winced after he heard the air forced out from his tiny lungs. He saw the boy wiggle from under the clothes and sheets, trying to out. Derek huffed and carefully plucked the clothes and sheets. He untangled Stiles and replaced everything back in the basket.

“You’re so mean.” He coughed out. Stiles seemed fine.

Derek taked the remote from the top of the large T.V. and turns it on. He automatically switched to some classic cartoons and handed the remote to Stiles.

“Here, watch T.V. until they get back.” He said as he turns around and starts to leave.

“Whoa, where are you going?”

“I’m just doing a quick sweep of the woods. I’ll be right back.”

“When is Isaac coming back?” Stiles asked. He remembered Isaac leaving to go help with Deaton and Ms. Morrell shortly after Boyd and Erica left.

“I don’t know. For a while, Stiles.”

“When are the others coming?” Stiles glanced at the time on the T.V. It showed ten o’clock.

“Lydia and Jackson won’t come until noon, I don’t know about Scott and Allison. Probably still sleeping or checking through the Bestiary at her house.”

“That’s not what else he’s gonna be checking…” Stiles muttered.

“I’ll be right back. You’re safe here as long as you don’t leave the house, alright?”

Stiles nodded slowly and saw Derek leave. Stiles slumped on the couch and stared idly at the television.  The Wild Thornberry’s were on, but Stiles wasn’t paying attention at all.

Stiles didn’t like being lonely, especially in such a huge house. Stiles shifted and laid down, head turned towards the T.V. The volume was on pretty low, near mute. Stiles sighed as he listened to the washing machine and the dryer running, the fridge humming away as usual.

Other than the machines, the house was quiet. Stiles took the remote and flipped through other channels, trying to find something else interesting to watch. He flipped through a dozen and decided to turn back to cartoons.

He forgot how boring the T.V. was in the morning. Stiles closed his eyes and tried to figure out what else he should do other than watch T.V.

He guessed he can bug everyone else by texting them.

Though, speaking of that, where was his phone? Stiles sat up and tried to remember. It was in his pocket before he head to the shower. They must’ve been in his pocket still.

Stiles hopped down from the couch and wandered in front of the stairs. He glanced up and saw the stairs stretch out. He bit his lip, wondering if the phone was worth the effort in going up and down the stairs for. Wait, since Derek was doing laundry, maybe someone placed it in the laundry room? He headed around the stairs and down the hall, back to where Derek and him previously were. Stiles looked around and saw his pile of clothes in the basket. He walked toward them and shuffled through his clothes, feeling for his cell phone.

“Where is that thing?” Stiles grumbled. A few moments later, he finally found it. “Sweet.” He clutched the cell phone to him as he left and climbed back up the couch and sat there. He pressed the on button and entered his pattern, unlocking his phone. Stiles saw that he had a few texts from his dad asking about his whereabouts.

Stiles typed in that he was crashing at Scott’s house. He didn't want his dad knowing that he got turned into a kid again. His dad needed to focus on his job and sleep. He didn’t want to have to make his dad take care of him, again. He had gone through enough when Stiles was about five, and those were hard times. He went to his contacts and pressed Scott’s name and sent him a message.

**Stiles : Dude, I’m so bored. What are you doing?**

**Stiles: You’re not sleeping still, are you?**

**Stiles: Dude, seriously, booooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeedddd.**

Stiles waited for Scott’s reply as he went through his games. He decided to play temple run to occupy his time, then ditched it after about thirty minutes because Scott hasn’t replied at all. Stiles noticed that Derek hadn't come back yet, and Erica and Boyd were still out shopping. Isaac was still helping Deaton out too.

They weren’t…ignoring him…were they? He wasn't that annoying to Derek was he? It seemed like his usual banter…sort of. Other than the fact that Stiles was a kid again and can’t do a lot of the stuff he used to do.

That…that didn't make him useless…did it? He still has his own mind, and not of a child. He could still do research if he had his laptop…but he doesn’t. He can’t make any meals because he can’t _reach_ anything. Stiles wasn't of any use to Derek any more. He was practically just his responsibility because Derek failed to protect him. Like Derek _had_ to do it. He said he was used to taking care of his cousins, but they were most likely to have been werewolves, not human. Plus, it was several years ago, and Derek wasn't used to taking care of a human kid, which explained why he didn't know about the hard granola bar incident. The werewolves could bite through that, but not Stiles.

He let go of a breath he hadn't realize he was holding. He didn’t want to force Derek to take care of _Stiles_ , having to bear that responsibility. Derek had enough shit he had to deal with and Stiles didn’t want to add on to them. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He didn’t notice the tears streaming down his eyes. Having that feeling that he would start being a burden to everyone. His mind flashed back to the sophomore party Lydia threw. When he had that hallucination of his dad…

Stiles shoved the pain in his chest and got up. he waddled over to the basket left on the couch and climbed inside. It was still warm. He didn't bother to turn off the tv or grab his phone. He wormed his way into the middle and curled up. Stiles poked his nose out so he can breathe fresh air.

Stiles listened to the voiced from the tv, comforting him from the silence that aways scared him when he was a child. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, sorry 'bout that. :)
> 
> EDIT 6/20/14: revised and hoping i got'em :)

Stiles woke up to someone shaking him. Seriously, there was someone trying to shake the living hell out of him.

“Stiles, wake up!” Stiles heard. Ah, that voice.

“…Lydia?” Stiles slurred as he got up. He noticed he was in a bed, blankets were pulled away from him. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked at Lydia.

“Why did i find you in a laundry basket?” she asked him as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“I was bored and it was warm," he said.

“Well, have no fear, Lydia has clothes for you to try on now.” Lydia smiled. “Now time to get up,” she said.

"Who carried me up?" Stiles asked. He glanced at the floor and saw the packages of clothing. Some were small boxes, undoubtedly shoes. “Am I trying all of that?” 

“Scott carried you up here, and they wouldn't all be in here now would it?” she smiled. “C’mon, get up and undress.” She got off the bed and pranced over to the small mountain of clothes. Lydia grabbed a set of clothes from the pile and turned around, seeing Stiles look up to her. “Well?”

“No.” Lydia threw him a look.

“No?”

“You’re …” Stiles flailed his tiny arms at her. “…there.”

Lydia just cocked her head. She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Big baby.” She muttered.

“Excuse me!” Stiles pouted.

Lydia went back to the pile and pulled something out of a package out. Stiles saw her pull out a small three panel room divider with a little red figure riding a wolf under a full moon. The paper screens were black as the frames of it were white. Lydia propped it open and set it towards a corner if the room.

“There, happy?”

“…did you custom order that…” Stiles asked. Lydia just smiled and points to the miniature room divider.

“Come on Stiles, we have a lot to go through,” she smiled. Something was telling Stiles that this wasn't going to be fun.

Well, at least it’s getting him distracted. Stiles carefully slid down the bed, clinging onto the blanket and dragging it down with him to make sure he landed safely.

He walked over to the room divider and went around it. Stiles saw Lydia drape the outfit over the top, and another outfit, and another, and another.

“Jesus—how many outfits are you going to make me try on?” Stiles complained as he tugged his over-sized shirt off and tossed it to the side.

“Relax, there’s only about seven outfits,” she said.

“Seven?!” he exclaimed. “but—”

“Quite complaining and put on the clothes or  _I_  will personally do it  _for_  you.”

Stiles simply swallowed and hurriedly tugged on the clothes.

“Where is everyone?” Stiles asked.

“Hm, Jackson is outside with Scott training, Allison is ogling Scott, Erica and Boyd already set the stuff inside the kitchen, Erica is making you lunch at the moment, Boyd is outside with training with Derek and Isaac is still with Deaton and Ms. Morrell.” she paused. “Why?”

“When did everyone get here?”

“I got here around twelve. Erica, Boyd and Derek were already here. Scott and Allison came shortly after Jackson and I got here, Stiles, why do you want to know?”

“Just wondering.”

“Stiles.”

“I was just curious, Lydia.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“ _What_?” he peered from behind the room divider and suddenly saw Lydia crouched down to his eye level. She stared at him with her usual blank deduction face that Stiles recognized. He could see her eyebrows pitch up a bit, though not too greatly. “I’m fine, Lydia, really.”

Lydia sighed. “If you say so then.”

 

It took about an hour to try on the outfits and for Lydia’s approval. Right now, Stiles is  _starving_. He's momentarily putting together his own outfit from random complementary shirts that the store probably gave them. Besides the really nice pair of khaki shorts, Stiles wore a yellow t-shirt underneath a purple plaid, short sleeve shirt, along with some black converse.

“We’re done, let’s go eat, can we eat? We've been at this for nearly an hour and I wanna eat,” Stiles said.

“Calm down, alright, we’re done now.” she muttered something about even more clothes. Stiles thought she was enjoying this too much and mildly thought that she’s was practicing on him for future references.

“Come on, come on!” Stiles grabbed her wrist and dragged (or tried to, Lydia just went along) her from the clothes and opened the door. Lydia walked beside him and toward the stairs where Stiles then instinctively clung onto her tighter. Lydia noticed it, considered it a bit odd. She’ll think on it later though.

As they finally made it down the steps and on the ground, Stiles let go and hopped down, letting out a sigh of relief. He zipped down the hall and into the kitchen, seeing Erica and also Allison and Isaac in the kitchen, eating.

“Food!” Stiles said as he went toward Erica. She was leaning against the counter, chatting and turned to Stiles as soon as he came through the door.

“Somebody looks nice in their new threads.” she smirked. She grabbed a plate of food from the counter, containing a turkey sandwich and some baby carrots with ranch dressing on the side.  She handed it to Stiles, who thanked her and carefully took the plate and went over to the table. He went toward the empty chair between Isaac and Allison.

Allison saw the conflicted look on Stiles’ face when he tried to get on the chair without knocking his food over. She quickly looked at Isaac and cocked up an eyebrow in amusement. She grinned. Isaac smiled and saw Allison trying to stifle in a giggle. He then grabbed Stiles’ plate and set it on the table as Allison wrapped an arm around Stiles’ waist, lifting the boy up and into the chair.

Stiles didn't complain though, since he was gorging down his sandwich via small bites. Isaac got up and grabbed a small water bottle from the fridge. He shut the fridge door and set it in front of Stiles’ plate.

“Stiles, slow down. You’re going to end up choking,” Erica said.

“That’s a nice thought.” Jackson sneered as he came through the kitchen door. His shirt was a bit tattered.

Erica held back a sudden urge to growl. Instead, she grabbed a baby carrot and launched it right at Jackson’s eye.

“Ah—fuck!” he growled and put a hand over the hurt eye.

“ _Jackson,_  no cussing in front of a child.” Lydia chastised him. She lightly shoved him and came into the kitchen.

“Oh, come on. That’s no kid—well—not  _mentally_.”

“Still, we gotta work at not cussing in front of him so people won’t eternally judge us.” Boyd huffed out as he came in; shirt tattered and went straight towards the fridge, grabbing a water bottle.

“Who won the sparring match?” Isaac asked Boyd. The tall teen rolled his eyes.

“Who else?” he snorted.

“You’re improving though, Boyd,” Derek said as he came in, shirt torn a tad bit. “You managed to add one extra scratch on my shirt.”

“I can’t believe I tied against Jackson.” Scott sulked as he came in. His shirt was also a bit tattered.

“At least you didn’t lose, Scott.” Allison tried to cheer him up.

As the werewolves cooled down, Derek finally asked Isaac what he found with Deaton earlier.

“Didn’t find much actually. I tracked it down to an old shack—”

“—that seems really typical—“ Scott said.

“—but the place was burnt down. All the stuff was charred and turned to ashes. Ms. Morrell said that there were some witches who casts a spell on their stuff so when they’re gone—”

“—their stuff is gone too.” Scott finished Isaac’s explanation. Isaac nodded.

“Scott and I found something similar like that in the bestiary. It said that the witches belongings had some sort of connection to the owner, though only one way. The owner is gone, stuff is gone. There was something else though," she paused. "It said that _'their death is always deceiving; pay no heed to the body, but the orb'_.”

“Orb?” Jackson questioned. “What, like a crystal ball?”

“Exactly,” Allison said.

“So where is the  _'Crystal ball'_?” Derek directed his question at Isaac. Derek's tone sounded like the whole crystal ball was ridiculous, though they don't have much to go on at the moment.

Isaac shook his head. “Her shack had two lower levels. We only managed to clear out the main level, but Deaton had to get back to the vet’s. Ms. Morrell said she had to leave for a council conference.” He leaned back into the chair. “They said it would be easier for more than one werewolf to search through the place.”

Derek nodded. “Boyd, Scott, and Eric—”

“I’m not going,” Erica chimed. Derek looked at her, surprised that she had maneuvered herself into Stiles’ chair with Stiles in her lap without him noticing. Derek cocked an eyebrow.

“And I said you are.”

Erica looked at him, holding back another urge to growl. She just glared at him for a few long moments before going back to comb through Stiles’ mass tuff of hair. “Stiles needs a haircut. So I’m taking him.”

Derek flinched a bit, but rolled his eyes. “Shave him, whatever, I don’t care. Jackson, you go with Boyd and Scott tomorrow.” He saw Jackson about to protest, flashed his red eyes, and growled at him. “You’re going.”

Jackson closed his mouth. “Fine.”

“Good. Lydia and Allison, look after Stiles. Everyone else, head outside for laps.” the werewolves groaned, except for Erica.

“I’m sta—”

Derek let out a loud growl towards Erica.

“Tch—fine, fine, whatever.” she got up, carrying Stiles who was still nibbling on his last baby carrot, and left towards the front of the house.

When she was out of ear shot, Scott brought something up.

“Was it just me, or does Erica seem to be acting…weird?” Scott mentioned.

“Sure she just isn’t on her period?” Jackson scoffed.

“She had hers two weeks ago,” Boyd said.

“Am I the only one who noticed her eyes were dark orange?” Lydia questioned. Everyone looked at her confused. “Before she said that she was taking him for a haircut, which I do agree on, he needs a haircut, her eyes flashed then.” she said. “Last I knew all of your irises were yellow, not orange.”

“So? Mine are blue?” Jackson said.

“You’re special honey.” she patted his head. “Erica’s were yellow before, but flashed orange for a second. I’m sure Derek noticed right away.” Lydia glanced at Derek, who just kept quiet, arms crossed. 

“Derek, do you—where are you going?” Scott said.

"Laps.  _Go,_ " Derek simply said.

Jackson smirked. “Looks like someone--”  

“Jackson, I swear to god if you say anything else, I will break  _every_  single bone in your body.” 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stopped mid through the chapter to look up some outfit references i could use for teeny Stiles and got distracted.
> 
> BUT I ALSO FOUND A LOT OF CUTE CLOTHES--OMG, asdfghjkl.
> 
> if only i could draw kids, i would draw Stiles in them, but i fail at it ; w ;.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, sorry about that. I'm going to pick this back up again, sorry for that long pause guys. It sucks when you lose interest in things but then gain it back some time after. Hope you guys still interested in this. I will go back and re-edit somethings in the previous chapters, just wrong information, yada yada.

Derek was relentless during training. Angry or not, he always pushed the young werewolves hard. He was particularly more pushy today than before, and the others guessed it had something to do with the state Stiles was in, and that he blamed himself for something that wasn't his fault.

Again.

Derek had simmered down after twenty five laps have been done. He then cut down the fifty laps to thirty five, and made everyone meet up back at the house. He was hot on their trail, pushing them faster to finish their total completion time.

Meanwhile, Allison,  Lydia and Stiles sat on the front porch, waiting for the others to finish up. Lydia hummed, scrolling through her phone and tapped away. Allison used the time to carve a wooden arrow with a knife, something she picked up from Gerard. She doesn't like to admit it, but he did have some useful tactics and sources for materials.

Stiles on the other hand, was so over twiddling his thumbs after two minutes and was up walking around the porch. He normally sat there and thumb through his phone, but it was inside.  He always waited for them to finish  up, so he was staying and watching them finish.

But he was  _so bored_.

Allison was definitely keeping an eye on him, even though she really has no reason to. They were in the preserve, the pack was circling around in the woods chasing each other's tails. What was a boy his age supposed to do to kill time?

"Allison, go get my phone ?" Stiles asked. Allison stopped carving and looked over to Stiles.

"You mean you don't have it on you?"

"That phone isn't going to fit inside these teeny tiny pockets of  mine . " Stiles grabbed his pockets and shook them. 

"Just sit and relax Stiles, I'm sure they're almost finished by now."

"But I'm _bored_."  Stiles whined and dramatically fell to his knees and laid on his stomach . "I left my phone all the way upstairs." he heard a sigh and glanced over at Lydia, who dug in her purse and took out an iPad mini, which Stiles knew it belonged to Jackson.

"Come here Stiles." Lydia said as she patted the small space between her and Allison. Stiles scrambled up and walked over and sat by the girls. She handed him the iPad. "Happy?"

Stiles grumbled and muttered that it wasn't his but he was smart enough not to say it out loud. Stiles went to the news app. Not much was going on with the world, just politics fighting about things again. Stiles clicked on the local news, hoping there would be something interesting to read. He spotted one news heading about several thefts that happened lately, and by things getting stolen, he swore he read someone's goat being stolen, which was just weird.  Still, it was something to keep in check, and perhaps ask his dad about it.

Oh, wait. He really can't ask at all since well...his condition, and he was sure the pack didn't want his dad to know at all. Honestly  _he _ didn't want his dad to know, even though things would be a bit easier, it would put extra work and stress on him and Stiles didn't want to cause his own dad that, when he did so much to him already in the past.

Stiles can definitely do this. The pack can help him too, so nothing to worry about, right? Totally. Nothing to worry about here. Stiles resumed back to the IPad, and scrolled through news and police beats. Small drug busts, but nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Bummer.

Stiles tapped the screen and went back to the home page. He spotted Angry birds in the middle. It was better than nothing really. It's been a long time since he played with this game series anyways. Stiles clicked on it, watching it load up. He kicked his feet back and forth as he waited. He didn't notice Allison's little smile, or Lydia's amused grin.

Stiles was doing real well in the game until he heard stomping. He quickly looked up and saw the others finally finishing up. Scott was first, followed by Jackson, then Erica, Boyd and Isaac. Derek was up last, no doubt chasing them and snapping if they fell behind (he felt bad for Isaac, but he's getting better at it at least).

"Lydia, time." Jackson asked her.

"You beat your old by three minutes." Lydia announced when they walked closer. "That's not _too_ bad."

"Hey mini Batman, ready to go?" Erica asked as she walked up towards Stiles. She sat down where Allison had left her spot to talk to Scott. "Really? Angry birds?" she raised her eyebrow at her little friend.

"I was bored, only way for me to keep still really. Just until I pass this level, hold on."

"Hey twerp, hands off my stuff." he heard Jackson say before the IPad was yanked from his hands. 

"Hey--wait! I'm not done yet!" Stiles jumped to grab it. It was silly to think he could actually reach it at all.

"Jump up and get it then." Jackson laughed. "You're such a shrimp, this is too easy."

"Jackson! Quit being an asshole." Erica growled at him.

"He needs to stop snooping through my things." Jackson scoffed. 

"I gave it to him." Lydia said. "I wonder what everyone will say when they see Jackson bully a child?" she smiled at him as she pointed towards Scott, who was recording everything. Jackson clenched his jaw as he roughly handed it back to Stiles rather roughly.

"Whatever." Jackson said as he went back into the house.

When Stiles finally had it back, he noticed with all the touching Jackson did to the screen messed up his game. The words Game Over appeared on the screen.

"C'mon mini Batman, you can use mine all you like when we get back, alright?" Erica said. "Don't pout, it looks too cute on you."

"I'm not pouting." Stiles grumbled. 

"Whatever you say." Erica said as she got up and grabbed her shoes from the porch. She went inside and grabbed Stiles' keys from the big bowl.

"But I don't need a haircut." Stiles whined as Erica picked him up. "It looks fine."

"It looks wild. Boyd, you coming?" Erica asked as she looked at him.

"Yeah, I can drive while you hold him." he offered. Erica smiled as she tossed him the keys and walked towards the jeep. "See ya later guys."

"Wait! My phone!" Stiles squirmed in Erica's arms. "I forgot my phone upstairs!"

"You can use mine."

"But I want  _mine_."  Stiles whined.

Isaac stared at the three. "Does he whine all the time when he was a kid, Scott?"

"He whined  _sometimes_.  Not a whole lot after--you know what, I'm  gonna go grab his phone." Scott ran back into the house.

"After what?" Isaac asked in confusion. He looked at Allison, who only shrugged.

Derek observed Erica the entire time. He noticed that she was tense near Jackson and his little stunt. He smelled anger seeping out from her too quickly before Lydia interfered. The glow from her eyes were golden though, and not orange like before. It seemed like he was going to have to pay Deaton a visit about this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw, i only played angry birds ONCE and i forgot how stuff went down, LOL. So that part may be a bit wrong...?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here ya go. Stiles spends a bit of time with Erica and Boyd.

Everything looked weird.  Things looked bigger, well  are  bigger. Stiles could barely peek over his windows from where he sat in the back of his jeep. He was strapped down by the seatbelts, but even those don't work very well. He was tiny even for them and he could slip out and stand if he wanted to.

Stiles honestly thought he was going to sit in the front seat, but when Erica started to put him in the back, he protested. It was his car and even now, when he's small, both he and Erica could sit in the passenger seat easily. Erica ruled it for being unsafe and the fact that they could get pulled over for it. They really do not want to get pulled over by the sheriff, or someone else that knew Stiles when he was a toddler. 

"Are we there yet?" Stiles asked. "Which one are we going to?"

"We're almost there and w e're going to the one that does my hair . They do kids too." Erica said.

"Are we going to hack it all off?" Stiles asked. 

" No , " Erica said. "You just have too much going on, I'm sure Jackson can pick you up by the lengths of your hair if he wanted to." he heard Boyd snort.

Stiles slumped in the seat, kicking his feet around. He dragged his phone on him and swiped his pattern. He went to his messages and found a few that he hadn't responded to. Two from his dad, one from Melissa, and five from Lydia. 

He opened Lydia's and found nothing but pictures of kids outfit that he will never wear. 

** Stiles: Never. I hate vests. Suspenders? Really? A bow tie? NO. **

** Lydia: :) **

Stiles has a feeling saying no to Lydia won't make her stop.  He backed out and opened the one from Melissa.

** Melissa: Your father wants you home. Tell Scott to come home now. **

 Okay, the latter can be done but he's not sure about the first one. She sent that around this morning and he's positive Scott was home around then.

Stiles was sure both he and Scott was in trouble for something they probably didn't remember. Stiles hadn't seen his own dad the day before. His dad was busy late night and slept during the day, then the whole witch catastrophe happened and he went back to the hale house only to be turned into a kid. So yeah, his dad would want him home around now.

Stiles sent a text to Scott about what Melissa said and then went to what his dad sent him.

** Dad:  Just because it's summer, doesn't mean you can go out all night. We're having dinner tonight, what do you want? **

"Shit , " Stiles said.

"Stiles you can't cuss when you're a kid, what's wrong ?" Erica asked as she turned around in her seat and faced Stiles.

"Dad wants me home tonight for dinner." he bit his lip. 

"Unless you  wanna  tell your dad what happened, you better make up an excuse now , " Boyd said as he turned a street. 

** Stiles:  Tell your mom she's invited to dinner at my house at seven. I can't go home like this bro. **

** Scott:  Alright and will do. **

** Stiles:  Btw, just let them have dinner by themselves or else it's  gonna  be awkward and you'll most likely be interrogated by D addy. **

** Scott:  Daddy?  **

** Stiles : I meant D ad, dammit. **

He was pretty sure Scott was going to tease him about that. He just hoped Scott kept it to himself. Knowing Scott, he probably showed it to Allison, who may have sent that to Lydia. Stiles was going to suffocate Scott in his sleep tonight.

"You know, I'm used to hearing you babble about things but now, it's creepy , " Boyd said. 

"Uh, pretend you didn't hear anything...?" Stiles glanced at Boyd, who smirked.

Boyd parked the car in the lot. Stiles was actually unaware they had gotten there already. Erica climbed out of the Jeep as with Boyd. Erica pulled the lever and moved the front seat up, reaching toward Stiles and unbuckled his seat belt. She gently picked him up and out of the jeep. Stiles saw Boyd holding the car door for her. Aw, what a gentleman.

"Erica ,  I can walk on my own." Stiles complained. 

"No can do. If I do, you'll probably get distracted and wind up lost." Erica pulled him up on her hip and started walking along with Boyd to the beauty salon.

"I don't--" well, yeah okay that was true. He remembered his Dad having a tough time with Stiles because he'd get distracted and lost all the time. "--okay, but I'm fine if I take my Adderall ."

"And did you take it?"  Boyd asked.

"...no , " Stiles said with a pout. He swung his legs around in frustration and plopped his head in Erica's long locks of hair. He sniffed it, smelling a faint smell of lavender.  It was comforting. It reminded him of his mom, when he just buried his nose in her hair when she carried him and it soothed him to sleep. She always smelled like flowers, and honey. The smell was soft to him, not like an outburst of citrus that would poke his nose because It was strong.

"You awake there mini-bat?" Erica's voice woke him from his thoughts. His eyes were a bit heavy. "Are you sleepy?" she smirked. "Come on, when we're done, we can go home and you can take a nap.

"Can we get something to eat?" Stiles asked.

"If you don't fall asleep." Boyd said suddenly, "We can."

"Sweet, I want curly fries." 

They stepped inside the beauty salon, and the scent of chemicals burned through his nose. He's sure Boyd and Erica disliked the scent too, but they seem to be used to it. A lady with short, dark auburn hair greeted them. She smiled at Erica.

"Erica! It's so great to see you again. Come back for another hair treatment?" she asked.

"Yeah, my hair got singed from a campfire." She showed her hair to the lady, who  tsked  at the damage. She then noticed Stiles, who had his face hidden in Erica's hair.

"Oh? Who is this?" she asked as she started to coo. "Aw he's so adorable."

"He needs a haircut of his own too. I think he's got too much going on here." Erica ignored the question the lady asked and ruffled Stiles' hair. "Sorry, he's just shy."

"Oh, it's quite alright. Come on, I can take care of you while Melinda can take care of the little one." she showed the two of them to the back. Stiles glanced to see Boyd sitting down in a chair and started to flip through a magazine.

Stiles turned to the front and saw the lady putting a booster seat. There was an empty chair next to it, so Stiles assumed Erica will be sitting next to him.  Erica sat Stiles down in the booster and then walked and sat over in the empty chair next to him.

Glancing at the mirror, Stiles could tell the incredible difference. He was tiny, his eyes looked so big with his dark eye lashes. His hair, oh god it was a terrible mess. At least gravity hadn't caught up to it yet or else it would be sagging down and not up and wild.

Still staring into the bright mirror, he noticed a lady walk up behind him. She was tall, with long black hair with hazel eyes. She smiled and threw a big sheet that covered his entire self. She snapped the buttons behind his neck. 

"So now, what are we doing for you little one?" she asked as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Can you turn him from wild child to a very handsome little boy?" Erica said suddenly. The lady smiled and nodded.

Stiles didn't know how much time had passed. He closed his eyes when the lady started snipping in the front. and spaced out in his mind. A part of him was worried that someone might recognize him and make things complicated for them. 

He opened his eyes when he felt a small brush near his neck. It wasn't too short, though not very long. The lady had put some hair product and combed his hair neatly. He was glad it wasn't the gross gel. He tried using it once in his life and his hair was so stiff he could actually pop a balloon on it. This, whatever the lady used, made it look soft. 

"Alright, we're done with you." She patted his shoulder gently. She unbuttoned the sheet and carefully took it off him and set it to the side. 

Stiles carefully slid down the seat and landed on the footrest and hopped down. He heard giggling from somewhere and flushed a little bit with embarrassment. He looked over to Erica, who inspected her hair in the mirror as the hair dresser waited for her to comment.  Erica's hair was now straightened, layers in her hair showed.

Erica turned and smiled down at Stiles. "Well, that's much better isn't it?" Stiles just nodded.

"I'm  gonna  go to Boyd, " Stiles said before turning away and running towards Boyd before Erica could get a chance to pick him up again.

He saw Boyd sitting there, looking at his phone. Before he could say anything, Boyd turned and snapped a photo of Stiles. Stiles gaped at the man.

"I wasn't ready!" Stiles said.

"Too late, sent it to everyone." Boyd grinned. 

"Ready to go?" Erica said from behind. Before he knew it, Erica picked him up again. Stiles just slumped in defeat, knowing complaining about not being able to walk by himself would do no good.

**

Stiles was happy when they finally pulled into his favorite diner that had his favorite burger and curly fries. He and his dad went here often, just spending quality time with each other. He frowning for a second, suddenly missing his dad, before Erica pulled him out of the jeep and put him on the ground. 

"Don't run off, okay?" Erica warned him before shutting the door. He walked between her and Boyd as they walked in.

Everything looked too big. He could no longer see over the counter from where he stood. He couldn't look around the restaurant to see how many people was in here.

Stiles listened to Erica making both her and Stiles' order, and then Boyd making his order.  T he lady asking if it was here or to go. Boyd answered the girl with a polite "to go." Erica looked over to him, raising her eyebrow. Boyd just answered her with a quick glance toward the back and back to her. Erica turned around, muttered a small "Shit" before she swiveled around and scooped Stiles up and placed his head on her shoulder. Stiles was about to whine and complain before feeling Erica's soft locks of hair drape over him. The smell of lavender was faint, but it was still there. 

"Don't move. Pretend you're asleep." Erica muttered to him.

"What--" Erica shushed him. Stiles didn't know what was going on until he heard some footsteps walk up and stop right beside them.

"Hello Erica, Boyd." a man's voice greeted the two. Stiles eyes widened. He knew that voice.

"Mr. Argent, sir." Boyd nodded.

"I noticed Allison was a big banged up yesterday and wondered what happened. She looked exhausted so I didn't want to bother her. I'm sure both of you can answer me though." Chris said.

"We ran into a bit of trouble, but everything is fine now, " Boyd said to the man. "Nothing to be too concerned about."

"Uh-huh." Chris was quiet for a moment. "Who's the kid?"

"Babysitting. He finally fell asleep, " Erica said in a shushing manner. 

"I'll leave you three alone then, " Chris said as he glanced at them. He  smiled and walked back to his table.

"Is he gone?" Stiles whispered softly.

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure he's still looking this way so stay down." Erica patted his back softly.

" I think its time to head back to the house, " Boyd said as he grabbed the bag of food. 

"And I wanted to take him to the park, " Erica said sadly as they finally left. 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update for y'all.  
> \--Also, the spacing when i copy and paste gets all wonky on me idk, so you might see odd double spaces here and there. I tried to fix it up for you guys.

Stiles winced when Erica slammed his jeep door shut. "Please be nice to my jeep, Erica," he said meekly as he squirmed in her arms, but she didn't say anything to him. She just held him tighter.  Stiles looked over to Boyd, who looked pained. "Hey, I'm pretty sure he bought everything so all is well?"

"Everything was great until he showed up. I wanted to take you to the park, but I'm sure he would follow us," Erica said as she opened the door to the hale house. "Derek?"

"Since we're back now can you put me down--okay, okay you can carry me. " Stiles put his tiny arms up when he saw Erica give him a look that said 'shut up'. Stiles just rested his elbow on her shoulder, resting the palm of his hand on his cheek and grumbled annoyingly. 

He wondered why Erica won't let him down. It's not like he was going to run away and cause mayhem or anything. He still had his adult brain, he was no child. He needed to be treated like how they usually treat him for gods sake.

By the time they got to the kitchen, Erica sat him down on a chair and went to look for Derek through the back door. Boyd simply sighed out as he sat the food on the table and went after Erica. Stiles shrugged as he tried to reach for the bag of food. It was too far out of his reach.

"So rude," he mumbled as he carefully got up on his feet and climbed over the table. He remembered when he did this once at Melissa's house when he tried to grab a cookie that she just brought out  of the oven .

He grinned as he grabbed the bag and dug around for his food. He pluck a large curly fry and shoved it in his mouth. God, did he need this so bad. He grabbed his small box of chicken nuggets and opened it. His stomach growled as he saw the crispy chicken nuggets. He noticed they were dinosaur shaped. He took one by the neck and took a bite out of the tail.

"That is absolutely unhealthy." a voice that made Stiles' body freeze. He knew that voice. He reluctantly looked up to see Peter Hale leaning against the back door, which he realized was closed. "My, my I wonder what has happened to you, Stiles," he said as he stood straight up, hands behind his back and made his way slowly towards him.

Stiles couldn't move at all. Honestly? He would much rather deal with Chris than Peter. This man still disturbed him. 

"For a young child such as yourself, Its best to feed fresh meat, and vegetables, for human diets of course." he stopped when he stood right in front of Stiles. His heart started to race, he started to tremble a little. He could move when Peter raised his arms and gently picked Stiles up from the table. His feet dangled, his half eaten dinosaur nugget dropped and rolled on the floor. "Well, aren't you adorable," he said.

Where was Erica and Boyd? Or Derek? Hell, he wouldn't mind Jackson at the moment either. Anyone can be helpful, just anyone not this man. Peter set Stiles on his hip, freeing one hand to grab the small box of chicken nuggets that were slowly going cold.

"I wonder what's so popular about processed meat battered and cut into shapes." he wondered loudly. "I know my wife never let our kids near this stuff. Get's them ratherill. So we just hunt and do it ourselves." he looked down at Stiles, who dared not to look at the man in the eyes. 

Stiles felt too vulnerable. He knows he couldn't handle Peter even when he was normal sized, but now, he was extremely vulnerable. He felt a finger under his chin, forcing to lift his head up to face the man. "Now, it's rude not to look at your elders when they're talking to you."

There was a loud bang at the door, followed by  footsteps making their way to the kitchen area. Peter sighed, as he leaned against the counter, still holding onto Stiles. Peter's finger was still under Stiles' chin, not letting him put his head down.

He heard another bang, this time from the backdoor. It was probably Erica and Boyd. From the other side, feet shuffled in, and some growling started.

"Why, hello Nephew. So good to see you," Peter said.

"Put him down, Peter." Derek growled. Peter cocked his head, eyes squinting just a bit.

"Well, it wasn't me that left a little child all by himself. And I found him dangerously on the table, quite near the edge in fact. I just didn't want to see him hurt," Peter said innocently.

"Then why do you have a claw on his throat." Erica growled. "Get your hands off him before I gut you."

"I came back because I was worried about my dear nephew being attacked by a witch, I honestly feel so attacked right now, " Peter said, trying to sound hurtful.

"Peter, we can talk, just let Stiles down, please." he heard Scott say.

"It's honestly so easy to rile you guys up. Do you honestly think I would hurt a child?" Peter scoffed. "Please." he held Stiles over to Erica, who growled before gently grabbing Stiles and backing away from Peter. 

Stiles clung onto Erica tightly, definitely not wanting her to let him go anytime soon.

"Then why did you bait both of us with Derek's scent and blood?" Boyd asked the man.

"In my honest opinion, it was your fault not to realize it wasn't his blood. You fell for the trap." everyone glared at Peter. "Fine, I just wanted to see the baby of the pack."

"I'm not a baby." Stiles grumbled, but didn't face the man. 

"I know you aren't, but does everyone else think so?" Peter said. Derek picked up on where this was going.

"What do you mean by everyone?" Derek asked.

"What I mean is, if word gets out that we have a child in the pack people will come and try to have the upper hand. Not once did we ever leave a child alone. Honestly, this was the second time he was left alone, I'm a little disappointed." Peter looked at Derek. "You're just lucky it was only me and not someone else." 

"We'll be able to sense if another were or anything supernatural are near us." Scott argued. Peter held his hands up. 

"Have it your way then," Peter said. "Don't say I didn't warn you. I'll just take my leave," he said simply before going out the door again, disappearing for who knows how long.

"Stiles?" Erica said. "Stiles, are you alright?" she bent her head down to look at him in the eye.

"He's gone now buddy,"  Scott said. "Hey, I already told mom to meet up with your dad tonight, so they'll have dinner together." Scott smiled as he looked at Stiles. "C'mon, I brought over your laptop. We can watch a movie or something." Scott ran his hand through his hair and ruffled it, messing it up.

When Stiles felt a finger poke at his shoulder, he turned to see the cup of curly fries in front of him. It was Boyd, who gave him a smile. 

"Nothing is going to happen to you. I-- _ we_ promise that," the man said. Stiles tentatively took the cup of curly fries from him as Erica handed him off to Scott. 

"Let's watch avengers," Scott said to Stiles as he walked up the stairs. Stiles just hugged his fries closer, listening to Scott's babble.

Scott opened the door to Stiles room, where he saw his laptop on the bed, charging. Scott sat him down and crawled on the bed, dragging the laptop a bit closer. He logged into Netflix and played Avengers from Stiles' favorites. He set it to full screen, set the volume up a bit and sat back, crossing his legs together.

Stiles crawled over to Scott and sat in the opening of his legs. Scott didn't make any comment on it, thank god. Scott plucked some curly fries from the cup, which Stiles didn't mind honestly, he knew he couldn't finish a large with his tiny stomach.

He leaned against Scott, eyes focused on the screen. His eyes grew heavy. He  closed his eyes when Tony, Steve and Loki were in the plane. He felt Scott gently remove the cup from his hands and then gently moving him in a comfortable position.

Stiles could hear a soft beat under his ear. He listened to the beat as he lulled away, falling asleep to the hand slowly rubbing his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter totally jacked Stiles' nuggets. Nobody can deny dinosaur nuggets (precooked tastes nasty btw, i love the frozen/uncooked ones where you bake/fry em. Way better taste). Also, I don't have Netflix, so i have no idea how that works.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things turn to Derek's P.O.V. As you can tell from the scroll bar size, its longer than usual. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Never in his life had he seen a werewolf with orange eyes. Red, yellow, blue, but never orange. He hoped it was nothing, that maybe it was just a trick of light but he knew that was a lie.

He'd never remember his mother mention anything about orange.  Did his mother not know of it, or rather didn't feel the need to ever share the bit of information because it felt unnecessary to. Peter hadn't been around in a long while so asking him was out of the question at the moment. That man always vanished whenever Derek  actually  needed him for once. He supposed that shouldn't be too shocking though. He should be used to that by now.

Derek stepped on the gas peddle, speeding up to visit Deaton. He hoped that man had some knowledge on this, if he didn't then he was on his own, unless asking neighboring packs but he felt that would put some type of danger for Erica. He didn't want to paint a target on the poor girl, for all he knew she probably had no idea they were orange.

Maybe he should've asked, but he's so used to keeping things to himself and his thoughts until he figured out what it was. He didn't want to say anything and have things turn out completely wrong. 'sharing is caring!' Derek flinched as he heard Stiles' voice in his head. He sighed as he made a sharp, sudden turn and parked in the lot.

He got out and slammed the door, making his way to the building. He opened the door, hearing the bells jingle above him. A few moments later, Deaton showed up from the back. The man was drying off his hands in a towel. He smiled as he opened the hatch and waved for him to come in.

As the two settle in the examination room, Derek asked him.  "Do you know anything about a Beta's irises' flashing orange?" 

Deaton's eyebrow shot up in a puzzled manner. "Orange?" Derek nodded. "I'm afraid I have no knowledge of that, Derek. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Derek asked Deaton. He was sure the man would know something about what keeps making Erica's eyes go orange and not her usual yellow.

"Its as I said. I don't have any knowledge of the werewolf anatomy. All the files I inherited were kept somewhere safer. I no longer have it with me."

"Then where is it? Tell me where it is and I'll get them myself." Derek asked. Deaton sighed.

"I gave them to your mother for safe keeping. She's kept them for a long time." Derek stopped when he heard the vet. 

"It burned along with the house , " he said quietly. Deaton didn't say anything, but his silence answered it for him. 

"I would suggest for you to keep a close eye on Erica, study what makes her eyes turn orange. What situation she was in , " he said.  "I wouldn't mind making some calls to a few of my colleagues and ask if they have any idea."

"I don't want to put a possible target on Erica." he shook his head.

"Words travel between emissaries are strictly confidential, unless there would be a time that information needed to be shared to help the packs they're looking over," Deaton said. Derek thought for a moment before he nodded his head. 

"Please ask then. Any information helps." Deaton nodded. 

"Also, maybe you should talk to Boyd. Perhaps he can keep an eye on her as well."

"I'm pretty sure I don't have to ask. I think everyone is." Deaton nodded.

"How is Stiles doing?" the vet asked. 

"He's been alright." Derek shrugged. 

"Nothing out of the ordinary?" he asked again. Derek raised an eyebrow.

"No, should there be?" Derek asked. Before he can ask the vet anything more, the bell rang from the front. "Have you found anything for Stiles yet?"

"None so far.  Hopefully we  would be able to  find something  inside the witches hideout tomorrow." Derek nodded.  "I'm afraid I have a customer waiting for me. I'll make the calls, Derek. For now, you must be careful of Stiles." he said before leaving to the front. Derek sighed and followed the man as he opened the hatch. He saw the man's eyes linger on Derek for a few seconds before directing his attention to the lady that came in.

Derek made his way back to his car, sat in it and sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp. For now, he had no lead. The only thing he can do now is just wait for Deaton to make his calls, as well as trying to find out about Stiles. He hated witches. Warlocks, wizards anything that could control magic. It always screwed things up and caused a huge mess.

Derek felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He dug it out and noticed it was a message from Boyd. He opened the phone, silently pleading it was nothing. It was a group message as well. He wasn't expecting to see a photo attachment of Stiles with his new haircut. It brought a smile to his face. Boyd had snapped the right moment where Stiles was in mid step, looking up at the camera. His cheeks were flustered. It was honest to god cute.

Derek tapped the screen  and saved the picture to his phone.

* * *

 

"Derek!" he heard Scott's voice call out to him, follow by the rumble of his bike. He must've picked it up at his house and split with Allison. Scott had a backpack on him, which was covered in Stiles' scent. "How'd it go with Deaton?" he asked as he took his helmet off.

Derek shook his head. "He still has nothing yet." he saw Scott deflate a bit.

"I guess our best bet now is to look through the witch's things tomorrow ," Scott said. 

The two begin to walk towards the house until something made  Derek stop . He could smell his own scent, faint, but it was there. He drew his eyebrows up.  What the hell ? He concentrated, and finally recognized the sudden heavy smell of fear. He sensed Boyd and Erica in the woods, Stiles scent along with Peter--

Derek made a dash toward his house,  threw the door open and made his way toward the kitchen. He found Peter leaning against the counter while holding Stiles on his hip. Erica and Boyd were at the back door.

He growled for Peter to put him down. He focused on Stiles. He was frozen with fear, even when he was handed off to Erica, who all but growled at him. Derek glanced at her eyes when she turned around, but noticed no orange this time. Perhaps earlier while Peter still held Stiles? He didn't know. 

Stiles finally spoke up a bit, then  Peter  said something about what everyone else thought about Stiles being the baby of the pack. Derek asked Peter what he meant by that.  The next thing Peter said made him feel guilty. He hated when Peter was right. It felt wrong.

If the witch had made her way to their territory, then what else might be out there waiting for the right moment to capture a prey? Derek was confident he would pick out an unknown scent, but there were beings that could hide their scent.

Even with Erica being protective over Stiles lately, she still left him when she though her Alpha was in trouble.

Derek felt ashamed, not of his pack, but of himself. He glanced over to see Stiles still spooked out. The boy hadn't said anything at all yet, not even when Scott held him and took him up to his room, babbling to the boy non-stop.

"I vote we gut the bastard," Erica said. 

Derek leaned against the wall, glaring down at the floor. "I hate to admit it, but he's right." he stoked his hands down his face.

"Are you serious? He threatened Stiles! He almost killed m- Stiles!" Erica's eyes flashed orange for a quick moment before it went back to yellow.

"Yes, he was a jackass to do that, but Peter wouldn't dare to stoop low and kill innocent children." Derek didn't believe that he defended that psychotic man, but it was true. "Pack meeting tonight," he said as he pulled his phone out and texting everyone the same thing.

* * *

When night finally arrived, Everyone had made it to the meeting. It was sudden, so everyone was on alert. There was no doubt some of them could smell Peter's scent. Allison hadn't made it, but he knew Lydia will fill her in.  Isaac looked tense, Jackson a bit more annoyed, Lydia annoyed but also concerned.

They were all waiting on Scott, who finally made It down with Stiles on his back. After Peter left, Scott distracted Stiles with a movie before both fell asleep. When they woke up a few hours later, they started another movie from Netflix, and waited until the others came.

As the two settled down on the couch, Stiles crawled  off Scott to sit next to him.

"The meeting won't be long, so wipe that face off, Jackson, before you really start to piss me off." he growled at the beta, who all but flinched. His face dropped from annoyance to constipation, if that were ever possible. "Straight to the point, from here until Stiles' body returns to normal, he is to not be alone,  ever."  Derek scanned their faces before looking at Stiles. The boy's jaw dropped.

"So what--baby sitting duty around the clock?" Isaac asked. Derek nodded.

"That's not fair!" Stiles shouted. "You can't just treat me like a baby because of what that asshole said!"

"What did he say?" Lydia asked. "What happened?"

"Peter tricked Erica and I into thinking Derek was in trouble. We left Stiles alone at the house, Peter came in and picked Stiles up and waited for Derek," Boyd said.

"So, that's it? You're making us babysit twenty four-seven just because he decided to hold Stiles?" Jackson said. "This is bullshit."

Derek clenched his hand, drawing blood out. He didn't want to snarl or roar at Jackson. Not with Stiles sitting right there. He didn't want the boy to start to fear him.

"It was to teach us a lesson." Derek pinched out. "Children of any packs are never considered a liability. They're too vulnerable to even defend themselves at all. As  adults, its our responsibility to look over the children. In my mother's pack, not once, when I was a kid, or my siblings, left alone. Someone was always near us, or with us. I never saw it as anything else than a family member spending time so I didn't think too much on I until now." Derek sighed. "If an enemy were to ever get their hands on a child from the pack, then that’s over for them. They enemy has the upper hand. Unless there was a backup plan involved, there was no way of getting out with out some type of negotiation, mostly in their favor."

It was quiet for a moment, until Isaac spoke up. "Has that ever happened to your mom's pack?" Derek looked at him and shook his head.

"But it did happened when my grandmother was the alpha. From what I've heard, Mom had a baby sister. She was taken and even with all the negotiations they were willing to make, they didn't care. They killed her and forced them to run off from their previous territory." Derek shook his head. "Point is, Stiles, you can't be by yourself. We all know you don't have the mind of a child, but with your body, you can't defend yourself like this. I am not losing anyone in this pack, and that includes you, Stiles." he looked right at the boy, who was speechless.  " Lydia, I know you or Scott will go over this with Allison. Ask her to give you something to defend yourself, just incase. I'm not taking any chances."

"I already have one," Lydia said. 

"One that isn't Jackson," Erica said. Lydia rolled her eyes as she drew a slim dagger from her boot.

"Forged with wolfs bane and mountain ash." Lydia smiled as she turned it to the other side. "It was a present from Allison." 

"How long have you had that? " Jackson asked as he stared at the dagger.

"A few months now, not counting the time when Allison taught me how to use it. Remember those yoga lessons?" Lydia said. 

"Can I get one then?" Stiles asked suddenly. Scott sighed.

"Stiles, buddy you know you can't."

"Why not! This is unfai-- _hey_!"  Stiles shouted when Derek suddenly lifted him up by his clothes. Derek was careful of course. He held the boy with one hand and held him an arm length away and raised him high up . He watched the boy squirm about, swinging his feet everywhere trying to kick Derek. "Let me go, what the hell are you doing!" 

"Derek--" Scott started, but stopped when Derek looked at him for a moment.

"Let me go!" Stiles shouted. His face was turning red from the frustration he was building up. His eyes were shut close. Stiles used his small fist to beat on Derek's large hands. Derek couldn't even feel it. Stiles yelled the entire time.

"Stiles."

"Let me go!"

"Stiles.

"I said _LET ME_ \--"

" _ STILES _ _._ " Derek raised his voice a bit. He managed to get Stiles to stop his tantrum. Stiles stopped and looked at the man with tears running down his face. Shit--he didn't mean to make him cry.

" Thi \--this isn't f-fair! I hate this, I h-ha te feeling so h-helpless!" the boy hiccupped . Derek held out his other hand to support Stiles from his bottom and pulled him closer. 

"Do you see my point? You're _tiny_ , Stiles. You can't defend yourself like you usually can. I'm sorry this happened to you. You need to let us  protect you, okay? Nothing is going to happen to you." he brought Stiles into the crook of his neck to let the boy grab onto him and cry. He honestly didn't want to make Stiles cry, knowing Stiles, he would only get really pissed. 

Derek just patted him on the back and sighed. He let his wolf nuzzle the small child to comfort him. Derek looked back at the pack. "Are we all clear?" he said.

Everyone nodded. Derek glanced at Erica, who all but look murderous and concerned. If it wasn't for Boyd, he was sure she would have attacked Derek already. He looked straight into her eyes. They were orange until Erica looked away and buried her head into Boyd's chest.

"Good. Pack meeting over--"

"I also have something to say," Boyd said. Derek looked at him and nodded. "Earlier today after Stiles had his haircut, we stopped by a diner to pick up some food and ran into Chris."

"He didn't see Stiles, did he?" Derek asked as he rubbed Stiles' back. It somehow lulled the boy back to sleep.

"I think we passed it off as babysitting, but coming from that man, I don't know."

"Try not to let anyone recognize Stiles, " Derek said to everyone.

"Wait--why not Chris?" Scott said.

"Because then he would feel the need to tell the sheriff, and right now we really don't want that. We're trying to fix everything without anyone knowing, including your mom, Scott. Unless you want another 'You're only kids' lecture again, for the fourth time." that made Scott shake his head furiously.

"No, no, no that's cool." Derek rolled his eyes. 

"Anything else?" a quiet moment. "Good. Pack meeting over," he said before turning around and heading upstairs to put Stiles to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Derek Hale, one who makes children cry. I'm tired. I'll come back in later to revise any mistakes i spot.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.O.V shift from Stiles to Derek. It might be a bit weird, but it should be fine. There's that weird extra spaces here and there thing, i don't know why it keeps showing up. Sorry!

Stiles realized he wasn't in his bed by the time he woke up. The bed sheets were a different color and the furniture was in different spots than his usual room. Stiles then realized he was tucked in, a large arm had caged him into a chest. His head was resting on a shoulder, his tiny arm curled in with him.

He felt so embarrassed. He cried in front of his friends like...like...a  _child_.  He swore on all things that he felt pure anger, but a weird feeling occurred then. The anger diminished quickly, and it turned into the familiar pain in his heart whenever he was sad. Then it build up inside him and he   couldn't hold it back. The tears flooded soon after that.

Hell, he cried even more when Derek did the  thing where the adults cuddled their children and rubbed their backs to calm them down and it made Stiles cry more because _ fuck you Derek , that’s what his parents did.  _ At least he didn't start humming and bounced him up and down.

Stiles looked up and saw Derek fast asleep. He was facing Stiles.

_Can't stay mad at him when he looks like that_ ,  Stiles thought to himself. He really couldn't. Derek looked positively harmless.  Even if Derek had been an asshole and pulling something like that on Stiles, he had to hatefully admit the man had a point. Stiles at this point couldn't do anything. He was too weak to even pick up a bat. How could he protect himself?  Rather than letting his pride be the death of him, he had to listen to Derek.

So twenty- four seven baby sitting Stiles will start as of now. If they're actually going to treat him as a baby, then he was going to get the best of it from them as he can.

Stiles was about to raise his hand and slap Derek on the cheek, but Derek suddenly moved, taking Stiles with him and hugged  him like a teddy bear. Derek mumbled and turned the other way and Stiles couldn't move from the man's hug. Stiles flopped in Derek's arms, giving up.

He can't do anything he normally would do to take up his time. Stiles started to squirm a bit, trying to inch out of Derek's arms and chest. He felt Derek's chest vibrate. Derek's arm slid under Stiles' butt and scooped him up further so he was nestling his neck and Stiles was cheek to cheek, or cheek to stubble. Derek's other hand found his way to Stiles' back. Derek's thumb rubbed him back and forth. 

Stiles is glad no one else was in the room or else there would be pictures.  At least they couldn't use them as blackmail material.

He wondered if Derek was subconsciously doing this to comfort Stiles because he was used to comforting kids of his family pack? Or Was he doing this to comfort himself?

Stiles poked his head up and looked at Derek's face up close. He looked different. He wasn't guarded, and Stiles could actually see him smile slightly. He puffed some air out. Oh what the hell. Stiles gave in and snuggled up to Derek.

Which was probably a bad move to make. It only elicited the sleeping man to rumble again and suddenly Derek was nuzzling against Stiles' neck. Stiles twitched, trying to get away. Derek held him still, not allowing the boy to squirm away. 

Stiles couldn't hold it in anymore and let out a high pitch squeal when Derek started to nuzzle the other side of his neck.

His squealing managed to jerk Derek awake and alert. Derek got up suddenly, letting Stiles fall through his arm and behind Derek. He looked back at Stiles, who was now laying flat on his back with his tiny hands covering his mouth. His face was red and he was fighting a smile, but the way his pudgy cheeks showed when he smiled, it was no use trying to hide it. Derek raised his eyebrow at Stiles.

"...oops," was all that Stiles had to say, but it was muffled behind his hands. Stiles started to crawl out of the bed when he saw the grin on Derek's face.

Derek grabbed his shirt and dragged him back a bit, flipping him over and nuzzling into his neck again. It drew out more squeals from Stiles, who cried out to stop, but he couldn't stop laughing out. He felt his shirt being pulled up and oh no.

" _Derek, no_!"  Stiles said, but Derek was already blowing raspberries into his stomach. He shrieked out, kicking his legs out.

After about a minute or two of relentless tickling and laughing, Derek finally stopped. Stiles flopped down back onto the bed. Stiles was sure his face was red and splotchy. He inhaled and exhaled continuously. Stiles looked at Derek, who was smiling from ear to ear. He looked at Stiles with a fond expression.

"I'm sorry," Derek apologized. He was sure it wasn't for the tickling just now. His smiled faded away.

"It's okay. You were right though. As much as I hate to admit it, but I really can't do  anything  like this. I was just trying to deny how useless I was." Stiles said. Derek's eyes glared at him.

"You're not useless, you never were. Nobody thinks you are, so quit thinking like that." Derek got up and grabbed a shirt from his drawer. He pulled a green shirt over him and turned to pick Stiles up and carried him. "Let's go downstairs and find something to eat." Derek said as his stomach growled.

"Sweet, do we have bacon?"

"I think so. I'm sure Boyd and Erica packed up enough from the store yesterday morning."

Derek carried Stiles as he went down the stairs. Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek's neck and wiggled into the warmth from the man's neck until they made it to the kitchen. Derek deposited Stiles onto the chair and walked towards the fridge. He pulled out some eggs and bacon and cheese.

"Cheesy omelets sound good to you?" Derek asked as he set a pan on the stove and turned it on. 

"Yea, extra cheese please. " Stiles replied. He watched Derek prepare him breakfast. He swung his feet back and forth before hopping down the chair and going over to stand by Derek.

He saw Derek twitch before looking down at  Stiles staring  at him. Derek raised his eyebrow.

"Stiles...?"

"I need to brush my teeth," Stiles said. "I don't want to get cavities at this age. I  _never _ had cavities except for that one time with Scott when we stole Greenberg's candy because he shoved Lydia down during a party and didn't apologize. She punched him for making her bleed on her skirt." Derek took a tentative step back. "Actually, Lydia was pretty rough and active when she was little, before her mom took her to do her nails and she broke them one day for being too rough."

Wow, he never really would've known that about Lydia. Who knew she was really active as a kid?

"Can we go to the store and get some pjs ? Sleeping in these clothes aren't comfortable. Lydia would blow a gasket if she knew I slept in these and wrinkled them, I mean look! It crinkled!" he pointed to his shirt.

Derek casted a worried look at Stiles. He was talking too fast so suddenly. 

"Derek, the eggs!" Stiles shouted. Derek whipped his head back and muttered a curse as he picked the pan up and scooped the eggs out onto a plate. It was a bit overcooked. Oops. "Derek, you're not supposed to swear! " Stiles looked shocked. "Swearing is _bad_ \--Lydia said so! And Scott. I'm so gonna  tell. We should have a swear jar. I'm sure it'll fill up in about a week. Can we get--"

Derek turned the stove off and scooped Stiles into his arms. "Stiles, shut _up_." he said to the boy, wincing at the slight harshness in his words. He looked carefully at the boy, who suddenly pouted his lips out. Derek panicked when it started to quiver. His eyes looked down, eyes welled up with tears. "Fu--crap. No, no, no I'm sorry, I was kidding!" Derek bounced up and down a bit, remembering the motion soothed his baby cousin. "I didn't mean it." he said quickly. "Please, don't cry." he pleaded.  Stiles balled his fist to his eyes and scrubbed the tears away. "C'mon, lets give Uncle Scott a call." he said as he bounced Stiles up and down. The boy wouldn't stop sniffling.

Fucking hell, what was happening? Derek silently cursed as he walked back and forth and reached in his pocket to call Scott. He prayed the boy knew what was going on.

" _Derek? What's wrong?"_   Scott asked hurriedly. " _You never actually call unless its an emergency." _

"Shut up--" Derek heard some more sniffling from Stiles. "No, no, no, don't cry, I was kidding, I'll get you a toy from toys-r-us, please don't cry." Derek pleaded the crying boy. 

"R-really?" the boy squeaked out. He didn't sound like how Stiles would normally talk.

"Yes, now please stop crying?" Stiles nodded while wiping tears from his eyes and cheek. He tried sniffled  again, but his nose started to stuff up.

" Scott what is happening to Stiles." Derek asked. "He wouldn't sh\--stop talking and then went on and on about cavities and Lydia being a tom boy and then rambled off. I told him to be quiet but then he started crying--"

_ " _ _Derek, calm down, Jesus I've never heard you talk this much."_   Scott said. _"_ _ Did you give Stiles his ADHD medicine? It should be in his backpack in his room. I remember his Dad telling my mom and I stories about Stiles before he was diagnosed. He would usually ramble off and then cry at the slightest thing they would tell him to do. He needs his medicine." _

Derek was already halfway up into Stiles room. He had the cellphone between his ear and shoulder and then yanked the backpack and dumped it on the bed. Notes fluttered out, along with some files from the sheriff's office that he was sure Stiles wasn't supposed to have. He didn't see the pill bottle at all. "Scott, it's not here."

" _Check the small compartment in the front. It's zipped up inside the pocket._ "  Derek was pretty sure he yanked it too hard. He found the bottle in the net pocket. He slashed it with a claw and pulled the bottle out.

"Found it. How many?"

_ "Uh, Stiles would normally take more than the moderate amount, but when he was a kid he took only one." _

_ " Scott, please stop referring the current problem to when he was a child." _

_ " Why? That's what's happening right now isn't it? He acted that way when he was--" _

"--a  kid. Scott, that's the problem. He isn't supposed to think like a kid at the moment. He's still supposed to mentally be an adult. " Scott swore.

_ "I'll ask Deaton--" _

"--No. Focus on cleaning out the hideout with Deaton and the others. Focus on finding something to help Stiles. If Stiles has his medication, he should be alright." Derek hoped. Scott sighed.

_ "Alright. Keep me updated if anything else happens."  _ Derek hung up as soon as Scott finished his sentence.

Derek looked at Stiles, who was looking at Derek.

"Derek, I'm _hungry_." as soon as Stiles said it, his tiny stomach growled out for food. "He swung his feet around in the air. "I want pancakes."

"You're getting cheese omelets. I don't have anything for pancakes. " Derek sighed out. He actually didn't know  how  to make one.

" Noo ooo \--that's  gross."  Derek rolled his eyes.

"You have to take your medicine."

"But I don't wanna." Stiles pouted this time. His cheeks puffed out slightly.

"It's tiny, nothing to worry about."

"I don't wanna ."

"If you do I'll get you  _two _ toys." Derek emphasized the word two.

"...fine." the boy agreed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. Here ya go.

 

"This is such bullshit. Why do I have to be down  here? " Jackson grumbled as he looked through the shelves of ingredients that belonged to the witch. He saw some odd things in jars. Questionable things.   

"I know right," Isaac drawled  out . "I don't have to subject myself to your constant bitching."   

" What did you say \-- "  

"Boys, I think we have more important matters here," Deaton said. He didn't  bother  to look at them. He carefully scanned the things on the large island. There was a lot of mess everywhere. 

"Where the hell is McCall?" Jackson complained. "He's supposed to be here looking through this shit." Isaac rolled his eyes as he started looking through the high shelves.

"Oh god she has a jar of eyeballs." Isaac flinched back his hand. He turned to Deaton. "Why does she have a jar of eyeballs?"

"There are some old fashioned spells that require odd ingredients.  By the looks of it, they're pretty fresh. " the vet simply answered as he flipped through several pages before nodding and shutting the book. He placed it in a large box he brought down.  Isaac quickly set the jar of eyeballs on the table and wiped his hand on his jeans.

"Stealing from a dead person." Jackson scoffed at Deaton.

"For your information, she most likely stole most of these," Deaton said as he held a small book open that  had a child's drawing on the inside of the cover. 

"Whatever," Jackson said before picking through some things on a table. "What am I supposed to even do?" he asked impatiently. 

"Sort through and organize." a voice startled Jackson and Isaac. It was Scott with a few plastic tubs that were labeled.

"How'd you--" Isaac asked incredulously before Jackson cut him off.

"How the hell did we not hear you?" Jackson asked. Scott had a confused look on his face.

"The witch's cloaking spell is still probably standing, and I like to keep it that way," Deaton said. Scott shrugged and sat the tubs down.

"Have you guys found anything yet? Any leads?" Scott asked. 

"None so far, Scott. Any luck with Allison?" Deaton asked the boy, looking at him for a moment. Scott shook his head. 

"We couldn't find much on witches. Just information on them, but nothing on the spell that was used." Scott wiped his hand down his face. "I mean, if we really need to find more about spells, why not ask a witch?" Isaac looked up at Scott, as well as Jackson, who scoffed.

“You’re starting to think like Stilinski now,” Jackson said.

“It’s better than looking through all this stuff. What happens if we can’t find anything here? More spells, but none that will help Stiles out.”  Scott looked at the two betas before looking at Deaton.

Deaton sighed and set the things he had in his hands down. “Scott, I know you want Stiles back to normal as soon as possible, but we have to be careful in this case. It may not seem like it, but this spell is fragile if you’re  tampering with it.  Gathering as much information as possible right now is the best thing we can do and prepare with caution.” 

“From the way you’re saying it, Stiles is going to be stuck like this for a while, isn't he?” Isaac asked. Deaton nodded.

“It could take months.  The faster we are in clearing out her things and possibly finding something, the closer we are in helping Stiles with his current condition , ” The vet said. Scott nodded, pausing for a moment when he remembered something.  "Did something happen?" Deaton asked.

“What…what happens if Stiles starts to act—”

“More like his current physical age?” Deaton finished his sentence, expression changing from neutral to concerned. Scott nodded. “That means we need to move along faster. The current brain he has is still from his adult body. There is a spell we can cast to block any of the spell the witch casted and protect his brain, but  it’s  only temporary.  While Morrell and I were cleaning the remains, her bones were very old, despite how you described her to be a bit younger. She most likely casted a spell on herself to make her appear younger. Her magic is much stronger than ours, so it just might break through our protection spell  for Stiles , overtime that is. For now, we need to hurry and clean this place out." Scott and Isaac nodded. Jackson huffed through his nose and turned back to cleaning the table in front of him.

"Hey." Isaac called out to Scott when he came near him. "What happened?"  Scott just shook his head.

"Stiles...Derek called me,  yeah,  he called me. He was freaking out because Stiles wouldn't be quiet and he was talking fast and changing subject. A lot like how he was when he was a kid and before he was diagnosed with ADHD." Scott fiddled with a jar of unexplainable body parts. "He told me not to mention it to anyone, hoping that the medicine would help, but I get this feeling that this isn't going to be the last time its going to happen." Isaac soaked in what Scott shared.

"Did...did Derek tell you what happened before?" Scott shook his head to the question. "Well, maybe he had done something to trigger it?" Isaac suggested. "Like triggering an episode."

"I hadn't thought of that," Scott said. "I'll ask when  we get back. W e can keep a look out on what we say or do with Stiles."

"If that's the case, then all of you have to be extra careful to not trigger anything in Stiles. The more I'll happen, the possibility of the episode lasting longer and longer each time," Deaton said while he brought a stack of book and set them in a tub. Jackson snorted out, to which Isaac rolled his eyes at.

"So I could keep treating him like I always have before and make him do my homework and he won't turn into a little brat?" Jackson said.

"Not entirely in the way you worded it, but treating him like an adult, yes. Have him do more research, more investigations, keep going on with things as normal as possible. We can talk more later, I would like to clear out as much as possible today," Deaton said.

 

Derek stiffly stood by the stove as he watched Stiles eat his breakfast. After he had drank the pill, nothing seemed to have changed. It could be because Stiles was focusing on eating his breakfast while he swung his feet back and forth.

He needed to be extra careful around Stiles to avoid what had happened. It was only the first day in the whole twenty four hour keep Stiles safe and this already happened.

"Derek?" Stiles' small voice snapped him from his stupor. He looked at Stiles, who held up his small empty cup. "Can I get some more juice?" he asked. 

"Oh, yeah, sure." Derek  went to the fridge and grabbed the orange juice. He uncapped it as he came to Stiles and refilled it for him.

"Thanks. You were spacing out a while ago so I had to dry swallow the last bit of my toast," Stiles said as he chugged his juice. 

He seemed to be getting back to normal.

"So when are we going? The store is like in the next town over. I remember going there, don't judge me, to get some presents for relatives." 

Derek raised his eyebrow, smirking at Stiles. "Really?"

"Dude, yes! I won't be judged if I played with the toys. I am taking this opportunity  and you promised." Derek rolled his eyes at Stiles. 

"Fine. We're taking the Toyota then. It's safer. There's a car seat in there too."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, you have another car?" Stiles asked. "When did you buy another car?"

"It was in the impound. It's not mine, it was my brothers." Derek answered flatly. He hoped Stiles didn't ask any more questions.

"But I'm old enough! I don't need a freakin' child  car seat." Stiles dramatically swung his feet in anger. "You're not putting me in one ." Stiles glared at Derek.

**

Derek strapped him down in the car seat later,  grinning  the entire time because Stiles couldn't do anything at all about it. All he could do was shout and squirm around.

"I should warn you, it's werewolf kid proof so you can't even press the unlock button at all." Stiles dropped his jaw. 

"What?! How in the hell did you get something like this?!" Stiles pawed at the button hoping it would unlock, but no such luck.

"My brother was always careful with us and the kids, so he spent some time fiddling with things." Derek shrugged.  "I never knew how he could do it, but he did." Derek made sure the seat was fastened down.

"I don't get to sit in the front?" Stiles whined. Derek looked at him like he was insane. 

"No. Now do you want to go to the store or not, I'm happy enough to not go."

"Fine, fine, I'm cool with the back seat, jeez." Derek rolled his eyes as he shut the door. Stiles watched Derek go around in the back, checking the tires and what not. 

He opened the door, muttering something about needing to check under the hood before they left. Derek turned the car on, checking the lights that appeared. Stiles watched Derek fiddle around under the hood for a good ten minutes before he finally shut the hood with a slam and finally sat in the car.

"We need an oil change but that shouldn't take long. Everything else looks fine." Derek turned the key, bringing the car to life.

"What am I supposed to do the entire time?" Stiles whined again. Derek sighed, digging into his jacket. He turned and handed what seemed to be Stiles' phone.

"Here, now you have a distraction," Derek said.

"Dude, yes." Stiles grabbed his phone. He totally forgot about it. 

Derek shifted the car to drive and finally made his way down the yard, though he didn't even make It to the gravel road before Stiles spoke up again.

"Derek. "

"What is it now, Stiles."

"I need to pee." 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. *u* Updaaaaate.

They had already taken care of the oil change, one of the workers knew him from high school and it was just a bit awkward with Stiles in the car, but the guy never said anything. They made small talk while Stiles was busy tapping away playing Diamond Diggers in the back seat.

They were on the road for about twenty minutes now and Derek heard Stiles’ heart beat slow and steady. Derek glanced in the rear view mirror and smirked. Stiles was already passed out in the seat, phone on his lap that’s close to falling on the floor. If he could focus more, he would hear Stiles’ soft snores.

It wouldn’t take that long to get to the next town over. It was a lot bigger than beacon hills, but not big enough to be a city, although it was close to getting there. If Derek sped the car, he would probably make it there in another twenty minutes.

Derek glanced in the rear view mirror. He couldn’t do that. It was too dangerous to do that with Stiles in the car and he doesn’t want to risk getting him injured.

Derek drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He wanted to at least flip the radio on, or the CD that was still in the player, but that would wake Stiles up, and he really doesn’t want to entertain Stiles for the next hour or so. Or listen to him chatter.

If he didn’t have anything else for his mind to focus or get distracted of, his brain would automatically pick up the familiar scent that still lingered in the car. It was faint, after the few consecutive days that he just sat in the van after repossessing it, taking in the scent that made him mourn for his family, his older brother. He aired the scent out. He had to. It was too painful to smell it.

He hoped that in the future, him and the others would plan a trip and take the van. It was big enough for everyone to fit in, and personal space was not an issue anymore. Except Jackson, he would probably take his Porsche.

Derek huffed through his nose. Jackson was starting to act like a little bitch. Bitchier than usual, actually. He knew him and Stiles didn’t get along so well, but his attitude towards Stiles and his current state was cold.

Jackson wouldn’t be scared of children, would he? That boy has too many problems that he refused to open about so everyone can help him and form a stronger bond.

Derek could force Jackson into trying to connect with the others, but he didn’t want to do that unless he had no other choice.

Derek sighed, then there was Erica, who he has no clue as to what was going on with her.

And then Scott and Allison, who were the least of his troubles. He understands that they both love each other, but those two are attached to each other too often, and he knows the many times they sneak off with each other they had been having sex. During the worst times. He could check it off as a way to keep sane and they still were young, hormones and all of that.

Derek paused his train of thought and then groaned out lout. He was turning into his dad. He is just a few years older and he said a sentence with “still young” and “hormones” together.

He glanced at himself in the side view mirror, turning into the other lane and catching a glimpse of himself as well.

Derek contemplated on shaving his beard so he won’t feel so old.

What was he thinking, he loved his beard.

 

“Stiles wake up, we’re here,” Derek said, nudging the boy gently. The boy’s eyes slowly opened, his fists balling up and rubbed his eyes with it.

“What?” he slurred a bit. He looked around. “How’d we get here so quick—did you speed?”

Derek glared at him. “No, I’m not an idiot. You fell asleep and time passed. C’mon, we’re in the parking lot.” Derek ducked inside to unbuckle Stiles from the seat.

“Derek, I’m hungry,” Stiles complained as he hooked his arms around Derek’s neck. He rested his head in the crook of the man’s neck. Derek fought back a smile.

“We’ll get something to eat later, okay?” Derek said. “For now, you have two things to choose from in the store, unless you want to skip the toys and grab food.”

“No, no, no we’re here.” Stiles perked his head up. “Anything?”

“That isn’t big,” Derek said sternly. “Or that has a lot of parts to.” Stiles pouted at that.

“I wanted the Star Wars Lego set.”

“Too bad,” Derek said as he closed the door and locked it. He shoved the keys in the car.

“Are you sure? I mean I could throw them at Uncle Creep’s feet for him to step on.” Derek let out a chuckle.

“What I would give to see the pain on his face if he stepped on a Lego.”

“So can I get a set?”

“No. I don’t want to be stepping on them either.”

“Damn.” Stiles pouted further.

“Stiles, don’t cuss,” Derek warned him.

“I know, I know.” Stiles rolled his eyes.

They stepped into the store, a blast of cold air rushing past them.

“Do you have anything in mind of what you want?” Derek asked Stiles. The boy pondered for a moment.

“Something that lights up. And that I can make?”

“You’re not getting Legos.”

“Please? I promise to keep in clean and I won’t lose a piece, besides if I did, your wolfy feet can just smoosh them.” Stiles started to swing his feet. “Please, please, please, please, please?”

“ _Fine, fine,_ okay,” Derek said. He then heard someone chuckle nearby. He glanced, seeing a lady with her kid.

“Don’t spoil him too much now, he’ll have you wrapped around his finger,” She said and walked off. Derek’s cheeks flushed as he walked off in an unknown direction, trying to find where the Legos are.

He had to ask a worker where to find it. The store was too big and there were so many freaking toys. When the guy gave him directions, Derek was relieved. He hoped to avoid people as much as possible, especially mom. Most definitely the moms.

He was about half way there until Stiles shrieked for him to stop.

“Wait, wait!” Stiles flailed his hands towards the side. “Ooooh, dude I want that! Get me that!” Derek turned his head.

It lights up. And he could build something from it _. Laser Pegs 16 Models in 1 – Predator._

It was better than the Legos. Derek grabbed a box from the shelf.

“One more.”

“Oh, I have it.” Stiles plucked a toy from under his shirt. Derek…Derek had failed to notice when Stiles had grabbed it.

“When did you get that?” Derek was confused.

“When that soccer mom was talking to you. It was behind us and I took it,” Stiles said, smiling. Derek took a look at it and huffed. It was a black wolf, with blue eyes.

“Really?”

“Yes and his name is Sour.” Stiles grinned. Derek raised an eyebrow.

“Sour?”

“Sour the wolf. Sour wolf.”

 

* * *

 

 

“WHY IN THE HELL DID YOU HAVE TO OPEN IT?!” Isaac shouted.

“I DIDN’T FUCKING KNOW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THERE WAS A WIND STORM IN THAT FUCKING JAR?!” Jackson yelled.

The two were currently in the basement level, agreeing that Deaton had the first floor, Scott had the second and both of them had the basement, since it was the largest. They were trying to organize things, until Isaac heard Jackson scoff about something, the first jar he picked up and opened.

“IT SAID BEWARE. LIKE NEARLY ALL THE OTHER JARS IN THIS ROOM.” Isaac waved at the jars, that clearly said beware on them. All of them.

“WELL EXCUSE ME. I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS FUCKING POSSIBLE TO JAR A WIND STORM.”

“WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO?!” Scott’s voice boomed out. Isaac pointed at Jackson.

“IT WAS HIS FAULT, HE OPENED THE—” the wind suddenly stopped. “—jar of wind.” Isaac panted out. “Oh god, I thought I was done for.”

“What happened here?” Deaton asked, coming down the stairs. Scott moved, letting Deaton pass.

“Apparently Jackson opened a jar of wind?” Scott’s said, not believing what he said.

Deaton nodded, scanning the room. It was a complete mess.

Jackson didn’t say anything. He looked around the room, at the mess he accidentally made, down at the jar across from him, and then down to the floor in front of him.

“I didn’t fucking know—” Jackson started. Deaton cut him off.

“It wasn’t your fault, Jackson. I had a feeling since most of the items she had did not belong to her, these would be here,” Deaton said.

“What are these though?” Scott asked.

“These—” Deaton bent down to pick the open jar off the ground. “—are trapping jars. Very simple things sold amongst magic users. Normal jars from the look, but you can manipulate them with elemental magic to absorb various things. They were banned when stronger magic users could trap larger things. Tsunami’s, tornados, or even lightning, or rather a bolt of it. If you try hard enough, you can absorb someone’s life force in these as well.”

“They don’t have any labels on these. Just ‘beware’,” Scott said as he looked at the box of jars.

“You can tell what is in them by exerting just a bit of magic in the palm of your hand. If it’s fire, you’ll feel a burn. Water, your hands will feel wet. Wind, you’ll feel air, and Lightning, a shock. I can sort through these and categorize them correctly. It would take me more time to figure out what exactly are in them,” he said.

“—Uh, guys. I think I found something,” Isaac said. They all looked over to where Isaac stood at. He was looking down, tilting his head as he bent down and lifted what seemed to be a trap door that was uncovered by the wind. He whistled at the darkness.

Scott and Deaton’s eyebrows furrowed together as they walk towards Isaac. Jackson scrambled up and followed after them.

“What’s down there?” Isaac asked.

“That’s a good question. Who wants to find out,” Deaton said.

“I, do not like the darkness. Or cramped places,” Isaac said. “I vote Jackson.”

“ _I am not going down there—”_

“ _I’ll go,_ ” Scott said. “Seriously, if Stiles were here he would’ve jumped down there by now.” He mumbled. He pulled his phone out, opening up the flashlight app. It looked like a long way down, though at least there was a ladder. “Well, here goes nothing,” Scott said. He put his phone between his mouth and started to crawl down the hole. He set his foot on the furthest step and leveled himself down, holding onto the bars.

Scott jumped when he made it to the last step. He was glad it wasn’t too far down. He could still jump and pull himself up.

His phone rang and Scott wonders how he still had a signal. It was the sheriff. Crap. If he doesn’t pick up then he knows something is up. Scott bit his lip, flailing a bit before answering.

“Hey, Sheriff. How are you today?” Scott asked as he set the call to speaker and then pulled the light back up on his phone so he could see in front of him.

“Oh, just fine. Was planning to have a nice dinner with my son last night—” Scott winced at that. “Then Melissa came over, expecting you. Said you and her were invited.”

“Uh—did you guys have a nice time…?” Stiles would’ve asked that question for sure. He heard the sheriff sigh.

Scott looked around the place, unknown puddles of water here and there. There were a few tables and crates and even cages in the back. Scott walked along, taking a quick look on the tables. He listened along to what the man was saying.

“What’s going on, Scott? Stiles and I were doing fine. I thought we were doing great. I haven’t seen my son in a few days. I know he isn’t mad at me, for sure. Is something going on that he’s not telling me? You guys know I’ll help you with anything.”

“Everything is fine, sheriff. Nothing is going on. I guess we were a little caught up in some supernatural stuff. Stiles is our main researcher so he’s been looking a lot of things up and sleeping.” He walked towards the back.

“He could pick up his own phone. Just, tell him to hurry and come home,” the man said.

“I will— _oh my god._ ” Scott closed his mouth. There was a body in the cage, orange eyes glowing at him.

“Scott? What’s wrong?” the man’s voice was a bit alarmed.

“I-I’ll call you back later sir,” Scott said as he hung up on the man. He carefully made his way towards the cage. “Hey, are you okay…?” Scott yanked on the chains and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Scott growled, tugging the door with all his strength until it gave out and flung back.

“Please….Please help. I need help…” the person, a man, said. “Get me out.” He said, shivering.

“Hey, everything is alright. You’re okay now,” Scott said as he knelt beside the guy. “Can you tell me your name?”

“It’s too cold.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get help. C’mon.” Scott lifted the man up carefully. “Can you tell me how you got here?”

“Took…she took me. Stalked me. Said I wasn’t human. She wasn’t human.”

“Do you know who you are?” Scott asked again, hoping the man didn’t have amnesia. The man finally looked at Scott. Scott looked down at the orange flickering eyes that stared at him.

“You aren’t human either,” he said. Scott’s heart fluttered. He must’ve shifted.

“I’m Scott McCall. A werewolf.” Scott said as he made his way towards the ladder.

“I’m Jordan Parrish. She said I was a phoenix,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The toy Stiles got: https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/laser_pegs/laser_pegs_16_models_in_1_predator.cfm


	13. Chapter 13

“You don’t remember anything else?” Deaton asked the man sitting on an old chair. He was surprised when Scott had came up with a man on his back. The look on the man’s eyes had shown fright. He wondered how long he was held captive down there, though it couldn’t have been for long with how he looked physically. Albeit he was dirty, that seemed about it.

Parrish shook his head. He tightened his grip on the jacket Scott had draped over him and shivered. “The only thing I remembered was pulling over to a gas station for gas during the middle of the night. After I used the bathroom…” he closed his eyes. “I can’t remember much after that.”

“What were you doing in the middle of the night?” Isaac asked.

“Job transfer. I’m supposed to be the deputy for the Sheriff of Beacon County,” he said. That made Jackson snort, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

“Aren’t you too young?”

“Yes, I’m twenty-four, thank you,” he replied. “This isn’t some sick joke is it? I know I’m new, but I’m an ex-military and trained as part of HDT.” He glanced at everyone warily.

“You’re going to wish it was just a joke.” Isaac mumbled loud enough for Parrish to hear.

“What the hell is HDT?” Jackson asked.

“Hazardous Device Team. They deal with bombs and explosive materials,” Isaac answer right away before Parrish could answer.

“Yeah. Whatever,” Jackson said.

“Anyways, did she happen to mention anything she wanted to do to you or overhear anything she said at all?” Scott asked, wanting to get back to the important facts.

“I heard something about a ritual and mumbling about needing more ingredients.”

“What, like all of this isn’t enough for her?” Jackson gestured to everything around them. Parrish shrugged his shoulders.

“ _For now_ , you should get cleaned up and some rest.” Deaton interrupted their conversation. “I don’t think Derek would mind if he had one guest in his house.” Scott nodded.

“Yeah, it’s the closest house to us anyways.”

“Good, you can go help Parrish then. I think these two can stay back and help me with the rest here without any complications.” Deaton looked at the two. Scott glanced at them also and rolled his eyes when Jackson gave a bitch face.

“C’mon. It’s a good thing Erica and Boyd went shopping this morni—” Scott was cut off by the sound of his phone going off again. He pulled his phone out and froze when Stiles’ dad popped up again.

 _“Scott, you have ten seconds before I have an officer track your phone down.”_ The man growled to Scott through the phone.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Scott said rather quickly and winced. He looked up to Isaac and Jackson, who were both shaking their head.

 _“I’m starting to hate hearing the words ‘I’m fine’ from both of your mouths. Now I’m going to ask one more time before I track you down myself and call Melissa for backup,”_ he threatened.

Fuck. “Uh, we kinda found one of your new deputies…?” Scott admitted to the man. Parrish glanced at Scott and then to Isaac.

“Is he talking to the sheriff?” Parrish asked. Isaac nodded.

_“New deputies? Scott I have a lot of deputies coming and going.”_

“No, I mean _your_ deputy, sir. I remember Stiles talking about it.”

_“…Scott that was almost a month ago that my new deputy was supposed to be here. Where are you?”_

Scott looked up at Parrish as he was thinking. Parrish was missing for about a month. Either the witch was very hospitable with her guests, or Parrish and his supposed “Phoenix” abilities allowed him to remain healthy.

_“Scott, where the hell are you right now?”_

“In the woods. You think you can meet us at Derek’s place in a bit?” Scott asked. He knew Parrish needed some rest, but to get the Sheriff to calm down, the man needed his questions answered.

 _“I’ll be there in ten minutes,”_ the sheriff said and hung up.

Scott sighed out before sticking his phone back in his pocket. “Hope you don’t mind if the sheriff comes to see you.”

Parrish shook his head. “No, not at all. Does he know about…” Parrish gestured to everything.

“Yeah…he does. It’s a long story.”

 

* * *

 

 

After they were done at the toy store, they headed on over to a diner to get a bite to eat. Derek at the moment tried to contain his laughter.

“I hate this place,” Stiles whispered angrily.

“We’ve only been here for five minutes Stiles, quit complaining,” Derek said. “You’re only mad because you have to sit in a booster seat.”

“I can’t believe I was this short when I was a kid,” Stiles murmured as he squirmed in the seat next to Derek. He was sitting on the inside, closer to the window as Derek was sitting outside.

Stiles’ feet swung and hit the table, splashing Derek’s drink outside of the cup. Derek would growl at him, but there were other people around and he spotted the waitress walking over with their food. Derek could smell the steak, medium rare and a side of mashed potatoes. Stiles had chicken strips with some tater tots.

“Stiles, if you don’t behave, I will put you in the high chair,” Derek said through the smile he presented as the waitress was coming over with their food.

“You wouldn’t,” Stiles said. He saw the glint in Derek’s eyes that assured him he would get the high chair and then some. “Fine,” he said as he still squirmed around in the booster seat.

“Alright, we have Steak, medium rare, with mashed potatoes and chicken strips wit tater tots. Can I help you with anything else?” the waitress smiled with her wine colored lips. She flipped her pale brown hair back behind her tan shoulders, looking at Stiles and then at Derek.

“No, thank you,” Derek replied back with a smile. He didn’t say anything until she turned around and left. He turned to Stiles, who started to pout. “What’s wrong?”

“I wanted curly fries.”

“They didn’t have any more. They told you that already.” Derek said, carefully looking at the boy. “Stiles, you can’t keep eating like this all the time you know.” He dug into his steak.

“I eat like this all the time, are you telling me I can’t eat like this anymore?”

“Yes, that’s what time saying.” Derek raised an eyebrow. “You’re a child,” he said lowly. “You need to eat healthier so it won’t affect your health.”

Stiles sighed. “Now I know how my dad feels.”

“Is that going to stop you looking after his eating?” Derek asked. Stiles snorted.

“No.” Stiles tore a strip off his chicken and started to eat it. “Where are we going after this?”

“Head back home. I don’t like being on the road alone with you during a time like this,” Derek said.

“You can’t keep me in the house until I go back to normal.” Stiles turned to Derek.

“I know, I know. Even I know that’s unhealthy. We’ll still go out. We just need to go in numbers.”

“All of us can just go out in a gang sort of way then, with all the leather we can wear. Oh, you think I can pull off a leather jacket like this?” Stiles asked suddenly.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Derek said through his food.

“I’ll just stick with the whole red riding hood theme then.” Derek rolled his eyes.

“Do they even make one your size?”

“Do you think Lydia won’t find one?”

Derek nodded his head. “Tru—” Derek paused and snapped his head around. He sniffed. Stiles took note of this and looked around, or rather tried to.

“What? What’s wrong?” Stiles asked. Derek shook his head. “Derek?”

“I can smell her—the witch.” Stiles’ eyes widened with shock.

“Wha—I thought she was—you know.” Stiles corrected himself after he remembered where he was. Derek shook his head.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t smell exactly like her, but just like her. It’s confusing.”

“Uuh, the witch wouldn’t happen to have any relatives…would she?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t know. We need to leave.” Derek took out about thirty dollars and tossed it on the table beside his half eaten steak. He grabbed Stiles and proceeded to walk towards the exit. The smell was faint, but still there. It made Derek uncomfortable knowing there could be possible supernatural danger near that would harm Stiles. Derek hugged Stiles closer, eyes glowing as he walked out of the diner and towards his car. He paused, spotting a car parked right next to his. It was a large silver truck, windows tinted.

Derek was glad Stiles couldn’t hear his heart beat faster. It was around three or so now. Still daylight. He could hear three heartbeats from in the car. Three. One to drive, the other to distract and the last to possibly grab Stiles.

“Derek?” Stiles’ voice brought him out of his thoughts. “I can feel your heart beating faster. W-we’re alright, right?” Derek nodded.

“We’re alright Stiles.” For some reason, his head was feeling a bit heavier. Eyes were flashing and wanted to close. He was getting sleepy.

Someone fucking drugged him and he didn’t even notice.

“Stiles—are you alright?” he asked, forcing his eyes open.

“Dude, I’m fine, but you don’t look so hot.” Stiles asked, worried.

“I’m fine.” Derek looked around carefully. There was a dollar store nearby. He inhaled, then exhaled. He walked, albeit woozy, towards the store.

“Someone’s here, aren’t they?” Stiles asked.

“Be quiet Stiles. I don’t know if they have good hearing or not.”

“What’re we going to do?”

“ _We_ aren’t doing anything. _I’m_ going to protect you no matter what, Stiles. Just keep down and be quiet.”

“but—”

“ _Please, Stiles._ Just listen to me.” Stiles snapped his mouth shut when he heard Derek’s plead. He all but nodded his head, knowing this isn’t the time to be arguing with the man and rested his head in the crook of Derek’s neck. He tucked his arms to his chest, clutching the fabric of Derek’s jacket close to him.

Derek walked towards the direction of the store, keeping his ears and nose open. What was he going to do from inside the store? Stay there until he calls for someone from the pack to help him, most of all, Stiles?

He had hoped Stiles would soon nod off. The boy doesn’t have to experience anything terrifying and he really doesn’t want to trigger anything else.

He could call for police, but it seemed silly to report something so casually. A silver truck with tinted windows parking right next to your car? You know it’s something suspicious because magic is literally in the air right now, he can smell it strongl—wait—

“Oh hon’ it was almost too easy. All I had to do was smile.” A voice crept up behind him. He growled, glancing back to see their waitress from before. “You don’t look too good.” She tilted her head, smiling. “I think taking a breather over in the alley would do some good, huh?” she grabbed Derek’s arm, who all but pulled his arm away from her.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Oh, sweetie, I just want to talk. My friend can help you to the alley just in case you’re really bad at directions.” She laughed to herself. Derek held on hard to Stiles when his other arm was yanked. He was glad he still had some of his strength left in him or else he would’ve dropped Stiles then.

“I wouldn’t protest if I were you,” he said, pressing something sharp to Derek’s back.

“Like that would hurt me,” he scoffed.

“Oh, yes, definitely not you. On the other hand…”

“C’mon now, we have things to discuss,” the waitress said, pulling on Derek’s jacket forcefully.

Before he knew it, he was shoved roughly into the alley, being led a bit further in.

“Your little nose should know who I am.”

“You’re related to that witch I killed off,” Derek said, earning him a punch in the mouth from her. Derek shielded Stiles away from her hands. Stiles had clutched onto Derek harder. He was starting to tremble.

 “Go to hell.” Derek snarled, shoving her back and turning to elbow the other guy from behind. He started to make a dash for it, only to stumble and fall. He managed to turn on his side to avoid injuring Stiles at all.

Derek realized he could barely movie, eyes were getting heavier and heavier, but he still fought the sleepiness that threatened him.

“You forgot about that little somethin, something I put in your drink.” Her heels clicked on the ground slowly towards Derek. Derek slid Stiles under him and caged him in.

“What do you want from us?”

“It’s not you we want,” she said.

“You want us.” A girl’s voice from the entrance of the alley spoke out.  Derek glanced up, relief anchoring in his bones when he saw that it was Allison, who had her arms in her coat pockets.

“Snotty little brat,” the woman sneered.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak to my daughter like that.” A voice from behind them startled the woman. She turned to see a man with his arms in his coat pockets. They obviously were prepared. Derek had never been grateful. Chris Argent.

He had never been so happy to see that man.

“Tch, Argents.” The waitress sneered before grabbing her friend’s arm and waving her hand around, causing a flash of light. The others flinched at the brightness. When it was over, the waitress and her friend disappeared.

“Derek!” Allison and Stiles’ voice called out to him. Derek tried to keep his eyes open, but it was too difficult now He closed his eyes, knowing Stiles would be safe and sound in Allison’s care.  Derek relaxed, the drug finally kicking in and knocked him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, i'm pooped. Finals are over. Wee!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait guys!!

Derek was very heavy. Stiles could barely move at all. The older man hadn’t had enough time to move to the side so Stiles wasn’t still caged under him after he fell unconscious.

Stiles tried to wave his arms from under him, though only his fingers could peak through from his shoulders. “Allison, get him off he’s heavy!” Stiles squirmed some more until he felt the heavy body lift away from him. He turned on his side and saw Chris, supporting Derek on his shoulders. The older man’s eyes widened when he spotted Stiles, or rather a little boy.

“Allison, what’s going on?” Chris asked his daughter as she made her way to the small child who looked familiar. “Why does Derek have a child with him?”

“Well. _That_ is a story to be told somewhere else safer.” Allison said as she picked Stiles up from the ground. “Long story short, Stiles Is now a child because of a witch and we’re trying to fix it,” she said, then turned away and made her way out of the alley.

“ _Allison._ What do you mean Stiles is a child—” he paused, then realization hit him. “ _That’s_ Stiles?!” he exclaimed.

“We’ll explain everything once we get back home, alright? We need to get Derek back home.”

“Fine, but you’re going to tell me _everything,”_ he said.

“I know. By the way, trying to sneak up on Derek to see what was going on wasn’t a good idea. Parking next to his car and waiting in it? Really Dad?” Allison sighed out. “Come on, we can put Derek in the back along with Stiles and I can drive them home. Her dad’s face scrunched up.

“Be careful.” Chris said. She nodded.

 

* * *

 

Allison sped home. Surprisingly, she didn’t get pulled over at all and Stiles wondered if she had done this before.

“Stiles can you tell me what happened?” she asked, glancing in the rear view mirror to look at Stiles. Derek was in the very back, so she couldn’t see him.

“Can _you_ tell me what happened? Why was your dad trying to sneak up on Derek?” Stiles said from his child seat.

“He knew I was keeping something from him and something was suspicious so he decided to track Derek down. I came along to keep an eye on my dad. It was a good thing we came though.”

“Yeah. We were just hanging out and stopped by to get something to eat, well not really since he smelled danger and had to spring out of there and neither of us could finish our food.” Stiles babbled. “Apparently, she drugged Derek.”

“Yeah I could tell,” Allison said.

“…Allison?” Stiles asked quietly. Allison glanced back at the rear view mirror for a moment.

“Yeah, Stiles?”

“They won’t follow us…will they?”

“Stiles, you have about six werewolves, and two kickass hunters, plus a dad who used to serve the army. A druid vet and a psychopathic werewolf who may or may not be on our side.” Allison said, throwing the last bit in there because who knows where Peter’s loyalty lies, but at least he can provide some strength when they need it. “You’re perfectly fine.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about though. Derek, he didn’t notice anything wrong at all until it was too late. I don’t know who she was but apparently she had the upper hand against an alpha, easily. If she could take him out so easily, then the others don’t stand a chance. I just don’t want to see you guys get hurt.” Allison drummed the steering wheel.

“We get hurt all the time, if you think about it. This will be no different than the other times that go bump in the night. Besides, we’re getting stronger, we have a shed full of witch things than can most likely help us.” She glanced back again. Stiles’ mood didn’t seem to cheer up at all. “Stiles, they’re gone now. If they are coming back, we’ll be prepared.” Allison bit her lip. This was tough. She had no clue on how to cheer Stiles up, much less a little boy.

How do you cheer children up?

“C’mon Stiles, tell me about your day, before the whole incident. In detail.” Stiles finally let out a soft laugh.

“Weeeeeelll…” he started.

Yup. That was easy. Children and Stiles are easily distracted.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time they had gotten back to Derek’s place, he was still out. Allison was slightly worried because it never took too long for them to sober back up again. She hoped one of the werewolves were home that way they can lug Derek inside, or else the man would have to sleep in the van because she couldn’t support him.

Allison shifted to park and yanked the keys out of the ignition. She quickly made her way around the van, over to Stiles’ side and opened the door.

“What about Derek? Stiles asked when she started to unbuckle him from the seat, only to find out she couldn’t.

“Uh, Stiles? You didn’t happen to jam this, did you?” she asked.

“Yes, Allison. These wee baby hands jammed the large lock on the seat. No! Derek said it was fortified with stuff so werebabies couldn’t get out of it.” Allison sighed.

“Oh great, only weres can get you out of this.” Allison glanced at the time. Some people should be back by now. “Hold on for a moment.” She sat next to him and tugged her phone out from her pocket and texted everyone.

**Allison: Anyone wouldn’t happen to be at the pack house, are they?**

She waited for a moment before hearing her phone go off a few times.

**Isaac:** **Why?**

**Allison: Shit happened. Derek is drugged and unconscious, Stiles is stuck in a babyseat that only weres can open up. They were attacked by a couple of people.**

**Boyd: Erica and I are on our way.**

**Isaac: Scott should be there already with**

**Isaac: Shit.**

**Isaac: Scott is meeting Sheriff there. Is the sheriff not there?**

Not good, she doesn’t spot the sheriff at all.

“Scott!” She called out. “Scott, get out here now!” she tugged on the straps holding Stiles in.

Scott frantically came running out. “What? Is everything alright? When did you get here I didn’t notice?” he said very quickly.

“You never notice anything, buddy,” Stiles said.

“Get Stiles out of here. It’s were baby proof and I can’t get him out.”

“I knew this would backfire eventually.” Stiles commented, staring at the two.

“What happened to Derek?” Scott asked when he spotted the unconscious alpha.

“Long story, I’ll fill you in later. For now we need to get Stiles inside before his dad sees him!” she hissed. It took a moment for Scott to realize what she was saying.

“Oh, OH. Oh no.” Scott frantically crawled inside, stumbling a little. He grabbed the strap and smashed the red button. It clicked open.

“Now get Dere—” she stopped when she heard a car pull in. “Oh no.”

“Aaannnnnd Dad is here isn’t he?” Stiles asked.

“Scott!” the sheriff shouted. “What did you mean when you said you found a deputy of mine?” Scott and Allison looked at each other, faces paled.

“Oh, dude you found him?” Stiles asked, only to be sushed by Allison. Well, excuuuuuse him.

Scott cursed to himself. “Uh, h-he’s right inside. Taking a long shower.” He turned to greet the man. Scott blocked Stiles out of view.

The sheriff’s eyes squinted.

“Scott, if his eyes squint then he’s figuring things out in his head,” Stiles said.

“Scott what are you hiding?”

“Nothing!”

“Now I know you’re hiding something.” The sheriff made his way towards the van.

Stiles on the other hand just rolled his eyes at the two. He wondered how long they could keep it up. He knew that his dad would blow a gasket, but he would probably calm down once he took a good look at his son. Seriously, nobody else knew that the sheriff, Johnathan Stilinski, was a doting father.

Yup. Stiles remembered his grandma always telling him that his father doted a lot with Stiles when he was small. Even his mom had said so.

“Hey Allison, ruffle your hair a bit,” Stiles whispered to her.

“What?” she looked down at him.

“Ruffle your hair!” he gave her an exasperated look. She finally got on to what he was saying. She ruffled her hair and pinched her cheeks a bit. She bit her lip to make them red.

She poked her head from beside Scott, waving a little.

“Hi…Sheriff.” She straightened her hair to compose herself a bit. The sheriff stopped in his tracks.

“I’m gonna go ahead and wait inside, if that’s alright with you,” he said, not stepping a foot further.

“Yes, Sir,” Scott replied back to the man. They watched him walk inside.

“What about Derek?” Allison asked. “He’s going to ask why he’s knocked out if he sees you bring him in.”

“We’ll just say he got drunk and passed out?” Scott offered.

“OR how about Scotty here brings Derek through the back while Allison here distracts him,” Stiles offered.

“What about you?” Allison said. “We’re not leaving you behind.”

“Jesus Christ—”

“How about leaving that to us?” a voice said from outside the van. The three saw Erica and Boyd, smiling. “I got little bats here and Boyd can easily lift Derek up to his room upstairs.”

“Good, great! C’mon before my dad decides to mosey on out and give you two a lecture on public decency,” Stiles said as he reached on over to Erica.

Erica cooed, seeing Stiles’ tiny arms reach for her. She took him carefully from Allison’s hands and held him close to her. “I missed you baby bats,” she said as she hugged him, rubbing her cheek on top of his head.

Stiles held in his giggle, feeling Erica’s hair tickling his skin. He squirmed, getting a bit more comfortable.  He closed his eyes, feeling sleepy all of a sudden.

“C’mon,” Boyd said as he draped Derek over his shoulder. The two took off with Stiles and Derek and rounded on back. Allison and Scott got out of the van, Scott shutting it behind Allison and went through the front door.

John was sitting down with Parrish, who currently had on Derek’s clothes. They were talking. John looked at the couple as they walked through the door.

“Nice of you to join us,” he said. “Parrish was just telling me what happened. After you rest up, we’ll go looking for your things. You remember where, right?” Parrish nodded.

“Yes. I just hope nobody towed it away.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find it.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Just call me John while off duty, son.” That made John pause. “Speaking of sons, where is mine?” he turned to give Scott and Allison a look.

“Uhh, he is out, helping Isaac with something,” Scott replied. This only made John glare at him a bit more.

“You’re not telling me something—” he was cut off by a sudden loud crash coming from upstairs. This made everyone snap their heads up. There was then a baby cry that alerted everyone. John was the first to respond by dashing up stairs and locating where the child was.

On his way upstairs, he found a broken door, Boyd groaning from the floor of the hallway. As John approached, he checked if the boy was alright before heading inside, glancing to find Derek passed out in bed and Erica groaning from the other side of the room. He then looked down at the floor and found where the crying came from.

Oh no.

John collected himself before gathering the crying boy in his arms.

“Oh Stiles, what have you gotten yourself into?” he said softly, bouncing his baby boy up and down, and patted his back gently. He shushed Stiles softly, saying everything was alright now.

“Oh no.” he heard Scott say from the door. John glared at Scott and the others.

“Somebody better explain what the hel—” John looked at Stiles, “—heck is going on. Why is my eighteen year old son now a toddler?” he grounded out. He felt Stiles’ tiny arms wrap around his neck and heard his son mumble out “daddy”.

There was another groan, now coming from Derek, who slowly got up from his bed. He looked around dazed and confused. He froze when he spotted John, holding Stiles in his arms.

“Someone better explain to me what’s going on before I set a bullet into someone’s ass!”

Derek mumbled a curse.

Shit.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theres terrible weather in the state and surrounding states and over 70 tornadoes and flash flooding. Its all gone but the flooding. Yeah. We managed to dodge a lot of the rain when we went out for mothers day. Anyways! I'm terribly sorry for the long absence. Nothing much happens in this chapter though.

It had taken a while to get the Sheriff to calm down before they started to explain everything from the beginning. Derek and the others apologized about what had happened to Stiles, Derek especially.

“So you’re telling me that my son took down an alpha from a kick,” John said.

“Well, he kicked Derek—” Scott started, but was cut off by Derek, who hissed at him.

“ _Scott,”_ Derek said. “Shut up.”

John looked between the two and had got the point. Would it be wrong for him to be happy for Stiles to have cheap shot the guy? At least he knew how to effectively take someone down.

“Anyways, the last thing I remember was Allison and Chris saving Stiles and I. After I knew we were safe, I passed out,” Derek explained. He was honestly truly grateful for those two to have followed him that day. If they hadn't— Derek shuddered. He didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened.

John nodded at Derek and then turned his attention towards Erica and Boyd, both of who seemed to be sore.  “You two, explain.”

“Sir, the only thing I remember is one minute, Erica was trying to calm Stiles down and I walked over to check on if anything was wrong. The next, I find myself through the door and on the ground,” Boyd explained to the man.

“It was about the same. I was holding him one minute, the next I was across the room,” Erica said. She looked at Stiles. “Stiles was in the same spot though.”  Scott look confused for a moment.

“So you’re saying he did that?” Scott asked her. She shrugged.

“What other explanation is there?” Boyd said. “Are you sure that pill didn't have something in it to make Stiles…well...” Boyd gestured with a hand waving in the air. Derek just shook his head.

“She gave us both the same, but Stiles should have been knocked out,” Derek answered Boyd.

“Stiles was getting sleepy on the ride back,” Allison spoke up. Everyone glanced over to her. “I could tell he was trying to ignore the sleepiness that was creeping up on him, but he didn’t fall asleep at all. He kept talking, even though I couldn’t tell what he was murmuring about.”

“He sleep talks.” Both John and Scott said at the same time. They glanced at each other with a smirk.

“We could just call Deaton and ask him to check him?” Erica said. She casted a tense and worried look over to Stiles in his dad’s arms. He was drooling just a bit, head tucked in the crook of John’s arms. Stiles had a death grip on his dad’s shirt.

“I think we should wait for Stiles to wake up so he can tell us what happened. I kind of feel bad for making Deaton run back and forth, especially with him dealing with all the witches’ things at the moment,” Scott said. Derek raised an eyebrow before nodding.

“Scott has a good idea. In the mean time—” Derek turned his head and looked over to the unknown man who wore his clothes. His eyes flashed red, demanding to know the unknown being that had no particular smell, other than Derek’s because of the clothes and all.  The man felt eyes stare at him and looked on over to Derek. He swallowed nervously before nodding at him. His eyes flashed a bright yellow orange.

“Jordan Parrish, I’m the sheriff’s new deputy. I was held captive for a while and was rescued by Scott.  I’m sorry for intruding in your home and borrowing some clothes.” He winced. “I’ll return them to you as soon as I find where my things are.”

“It’s impounded. I already had a few officers go by and pick it up for you,” John said to Parrish.  He nodded at him and thanked the man.

“Why did she take you?” Derek asked, straight to the point.

“Uh, she said I was a phoenix and that she needed me for something. I didn't know what for though.” Hearing what Parrish was made Derek’s eyebrows shot up.

Phoenixes in general were rare. Just for being what they are, everybody of the supernatural knows of their existence. They kept to themselves for a reason, and finding one so young was also rare.  Derek remembered his mother teaching him and his siblings about supernatural creatures, going over the Arabian myths. She said she never in her life had met one. Her mother, Derek’s grandmother, had met a phoenix once, and it was to save his mom’s life. They were on great terms and the gift from the phoenix was special. It was one of the reasons why his grandmother had always held her daughter in such a bright light. She was proud of her, and raised her to be one of the greatest alphas in the nation.

For him to wind up being here, must be a sign of some sort. One that will keep Derek on edge for a while.

Derek didn't know a thing about Phoenixes and their kind. How their power works. He can’t ask anyone else, for it might risk Parrish’s life. Derek sighed, rubbing fingers across his forehead.

“You should definitely get some rest before I start explaining everything to you. I assume Scott told you he was a werewolf already.” Derek glared at the young werewolf.  Parrish nodded. “It goes deeper than just being a werewolf. You can take a guest room here and tomorrow morning we can start, if that’s alright with you.”

“Thank you.”

Derek led Parrish up the stairs, and into one of the extra bedrooms that Jackson and Lydia used sometimes if they bunked at his place. It’s clean, and rarely used. Derek bid him a good rest of the day and closed the door on the sleepy young deputy. He trudged back downstairs and went into the living area where the others were at. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

“How long will he stay like this?” the sheriff asked quietly as Stiles was fast asleep. He rubbed small little circles on Stiles’ back.

“We don’t know,” Derek answered. “It’s a direct spell, so it may or may not wear off. Everyone is doing their best to try and find a solution to get him back to normal.”

“Is he…?” John was almost too afraid to ask. “What about his head?” Scott smiled.

“He remembers. His mind is still the Stiles we know, its just…well…you know…” Scott gestured to Stiles’ tiny sleeping figure. “He’s tiny.”

John was confused for a moment. “If he’s still mentally himself, then why’d he cry and acted his physical age?”

“Actually, it was a problem that’s starting to happened. I asked Deaton—sorry Derek, if it had anything to do with Stiles’ wellbeing then I had to—about it and he said to try and keep Stiles doing what his real age is. Deaton said we needed to be careful on this, since it’s a fragile spell. We need to go at it carefully and not too quickly.”

“Scott, from the way you’re saying this it’s almost as if he’s going to be like this for a while,” John sighed. Scott hadn't say anything, just biting his lip as he glanced at Derek and the sheriff.

“That’s what I said too. I just hope we can find anything as we clear out the place. Isaac and Jackson are over there now helping Deaton.”

“Scott are you telling me he’s going to be stuck like this?!” John asked Scott alarmingly. 

“No, no! Not stuck forever! Just for a little bit while we figure things out carefully!”

“Oh my god.” John leaned back into the sofa chair he was in. “Were you planning on looking after him and not telling me at all until you found a cure?” John asked. Everyone sort of nodded. “What about College, Scott? He was planning to go in the fall. If it’s as you said, he’s not going to be able to go this year.”

“At least we walked already?” Scott said, hopping it would ease the man. It didn’t. “Sorry. I kinda forgot about College.”

“I mean, you guys can still go, no problem. Stiles can’t. Even with online courses, he still has to appear for major tests.” John looked at the kids, who looked down in guilt. “I’m sure you all had your few days of fun, but this is reality. Stiles’ life had just been re-winded. He can’t go out in Beacon Hills or else someone will recognize him and he surely can’t spend forever trapped inside. If he runs out of his medication, he’s going to have to return to the doctor for another prescription. I don’t know if he can keep taking the ones he has now or go for a smaller dosage. What happens if you can’t find a cure? What then? He’s going to have to go through life again? In secret if he stays here?” John ranted out. He saw the kids’ expression. They clearly hadn’t thought of anything ahead.

He closed his eyes, breathing in and out until he calmed down. He can’t deal with this alone right now. He slowly moved towards his pocket and grabbed his cell phone out, dialing a familiar number.

“Hey, yeah it’s me. You think you can come over to the hale house before your shift? Yeah, sorta urgent. Great I’ll see you soon. Bye.” John hung up and stuck the phone back in his pocket. He noticed Scott’s confused expression. “That was your mother, by the way.”

Scott closed his eyes, before resting it in the palms of his hands.

“She’s going to ground me.”

“Scott, you’re eighteen.” Erica reminded him.

“She’s going to _ground_ me.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sheriff knows now! Next is Melissa!


End file.
